Just one more level
by Stephen-Warner
Summary: Harry is distraught after the death of Sirius and finds solace in this new fangled game Dean shows him. World Of Warcraft.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>-Hey dean what are you up to?<p>

Harry had just walked in the gryffindor dormitory and found his roommate bending over one of those portable computers.

-Mmh? Oh just playing some WOW.

The young man responded without looking up.

-wow? wow what?

The incomprehension must have been obvious on Harry's face as the Irish student looked up and started laughing.

-WOW, as in World Of Warcraft, its a norms video game, you play it over the internet, its really cool, come and see.

The boy who lived had little more then a passing acquaintance with muggle video games so he approached to take a look.

When the screen came into view the sight puzzled him. A small humanoid form in the middle of the screen was obviously engaged in some sort of physical struggle with what appeared to be 5 bright red aragogs while all around confusing displays kept changing and at the bottom left a running commentary seemed to be detailing the action.

-What the...?

-I know it looks a bit overwhelming at first, but its actually easy to understand.

The look the boy who lived returned expressed his thoughts quite clearly.

-HA HA, no really it is, ignore whats all around and just look at the guy.

Harry focused on the screen.

-This is my blood elf hunter, Blackcoyote, and sharpclaw is her pet right now I'm just fighting random mobs for a quest.

Harry turned back to the Irish boy with a sardonic grin.

-With you up to about "this is my", then you lost me again.

Dean laughed at the comment.

-Sorry, sorry. Ok, let me try again, this is an online game, where you create a character.

He pointed to the female looking avatar on the screen.

-And you play with other people on their own computers all over the world, making sense so far?

Harry nodded slowly.

-Ok, so the world is a bit like the dark ages except with magic and other species, blood elf is one of those.

Harry just nodded to keep the information flow going.

-When you create a character you choose a class, hunter is one of them, there is a bunch of different ones but hunter is the most powerful against monsters.

-Monsters being the giant spiders?

-Exactly. More precisely everything that you fight that is not another player.

The black haired boy made a gesture with his hand to indicate that he understood.

-So you fight those monsters, kill them and you get XP and gold and once you get enough of both you get levels and you learn new things and you can get new gear and kill more powerful stuff.

-Wow, what is XP?

Dean shrugged apologetically.

-Sorry, Experience points, its a symbol of what you have learned and how you progress, its the only thing of real value in the game.

Harry nodded slowly as he processed this.

-Ok I think I got all that, now what is the point of the game?

Dean laughed.

-Funny how this is always the question everybody asks. The truth is there is no end to the game, you have 80 levels to gain which get progressively harder and then once you got that there is all the master dungeons and then arena, that's when you play against other players, and that's more or less the end of it, then you create another character from a different class and start over.

Green eyes focused on the screen as the tiger of its own volition killed one of the giant spiders that had wandered too close as they talked.

-I think I get it, now the next question, how the heck do you get this to work at Hogwarts?

The brown haired boy laughed at the exclamation.

-I don't really understand all of it myself, but me mom got me a special shielding on the computer from some American covenant and then she bought this card.

He pointed to a small orange antenna sticking out of the side of the machine with a feather dangling from the top.

-Its got some portal related magic on it that makes it so I can connect from anywhere in the world except that it acts as if I was in America so I can only get to bloody yank servers.

Harry once again stared with a raised eyebrow.

-Sorry, sorry. I mean that I can only connect to WOW servers that are in America for American players rather then here in England.

-I see.

Harry looked once again as dean methodically started clicking on all the corpses strewn around his character.

-Do you think you could let me have a go sometime?

Dean looked up.

-Of course mate, only not right now cuz I am in the middle of a quest.

The young man backed off hastily.

-No of course, just when you don't need it, only it looks fun and I'd like to try it.

Harry stepped back towards the door holding his backpack.

-Thanks for showing it to me, see you on the train.

* * *

><p>Harry stepped out into the sunlight.<p>

The carriage were waiting at the bottom of the steps, the students oblivious to all that had happened.

As he made his way down he thought back to that most horrible of evenings.

In many ways it felt like a car accident, he could only remember most of it after the facts and even then it was as if it had happened to somebody else.

The fight.

The flight from the Death eaters.

The chamber.

Sirius.

No. Not now. Later when he was alone he could break down, but now was NOT the time. Look up, smile, or at least bare your teeth in an upward grin. Let the herd think all was well.

His musings were brought to a halt as Hermione waived him towards one of the coaches.

-Harry, you ready to go?'

The obvious concern in her voice made him bare his teeth again.

Nodding his head he stepped into the carriage.

The trip to the station was uneventful, the conversation of his friends only needed a few non committal noises from him to keep going. Harry mused on the last few days when the image of Dean's game came up in his brain. Maybe that was what he needed, some time killing things that were not evil but simply there to be killed.

-Harry, you with us mate?

The boy looked up to his redhead friend.

-What?

Ron shook his head and smiled.

-Were here Harry, the train. It's time to go.

The boy who lived stood up and shouldered his backpack.

-Oh yeah, sorry about that.

As He turned his head he espied the Irish wizard getting on the train with his computer in his messenger bag at his hip.

-Huh, you guys find a compartment, I need to go talk to dean for a little while.

The black haired boy never noticed a pair of eyes following him as he stepped away from his friends.

Harry followed Dean as he stepped onto the train.

-Hey Thomas, can I talk to you for a minute.

He followed the boy as he and Seamus stepped into an empty compartment.

-Sure Harry, what do you need?

Seamus answered with a raised eyebrow.

-Mh actually, I just wanted to ask Dean if I could borrow his game for a few hours.

He turned to Dean.

-Can I?

The young boy started worrying his upper lip.

-I am sorry but no Harry, you can borrow it and start a character if you want but I promised my mom that I wouldn't let the prototype out of my sight.

The boy who lived smiled brightly as he dropped his backpack on the empty seat.

-No worries, if its ok with you guys I'll just stay here and play for a while.

He looked expectantly at the Irish wizard as he said this.

-Sure man, here let me boot it for you.

As the laptop was retrieved from its bag Harry sat himself comfortably and crossed his legs.

Dean booted the laptop and started the program.

The image of a dragon of bones filled the screen.

-Ok Harry, I'll start you on a PVE so you can learn ok?

The boy raised an eyebrow mockingly.

-P, V what?

Dean laughed at the look the two other boys were giving him.

-Don't worry about it, it just means other players can't attack you. Here Rexxar looks like a good low pop plus I know a hot girl that plays on it. I'll friend her to your toon when you get in.

the boy who lived just nodded at the incomprehensible sentence, he figured it would make sense once he got into the game.

-Here Harry, what do you want to play?

Harry picked up the computer, no laptop, that was the name and set it on his lap.

-Ok, those are all the races, Human, Night elf, Orc, Undead, etc, you need to start by choosing which one you want.

Harry looked a little disheveled.

-Which one would you pick?

Dean grinned.

-Well I play a female Night elf cuz they're hot.

He raised his eyebrows in a very Groucho like manner.

-But you might want to start human cuz they are a little easier to play.

The boy-who-lived-to-play-video-games grinned.

-Humans it is. Ok, what is this? Warrior?

-Well its your call really, your class determines pretty much everything about you so you want to chose carefully here.

Harry interrupted him.

-Which one can throw fireballs?

-Or you can just go with the one that throws fireball,' He laughed and pointed at the screen. 'mages.'

He pointed to the appropriate panel on the screen.

-Ok, I guess this guy looks like you enough as it is, now you just need to pick a name.

Harry started typing in h,a,r,r,y and pressed enter only to be greeted with an error message.

-Hey Cho.

The name jerked The young boy up.

-What are you up to Harry?

He blushed a little as he looked up.

-Some muggle game. What about you?

As he said this he started typing the name that had been on his mind so much lately, s,i,r,i,u,s.

Again the message came up "name is unavailable".

As Harry clicked on the name the words Cho were uttering started registering.

-...asked that you die half-breed and he selected ME as his instrument.

The sound of cloth tearing was drowned out by the computer as it started loudly declaiming something about Azeroth.

The boy-who-lived looked up.

Cho was pulling a cloth bag apart. Small silver drops started falling towards the floor as Harry opened his mouth.

The young lady threw the things in her hand and stepped out of the compartment grinning.

The moment took a surreal quality.

Time slowed as the small balls flew towards them.

Dean and Seamus stood there with there eyes bulging out.

The voice coming out of the speaker was sharp as a knife in his ears.

The first tear hit the the backpack by the irish boy. The bag started shrinking until nothing could be seen.

The next hit Dean on the chest. The boy did not have a chance to utter a scream as he too dissapeared into nothing.

-Wha...

The sound barely left his lips when two of the silver items hit together. One on his hand hovering over the keyboard, the other hit the talisman on the laptop.

Cho smirked as she quietly closed the compartment door behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>Harry stood up.<p>

The pain was gone.

Something was there though, some Surreality to the, well, reality.

He looked around and found himself in a blue field surrounded by people. The man right in front o him was a knight, complete with steel helm and rigid posture.

There were 3 other a ways behind him, all dressed in what looked like medieval garbs.

-What the hell is this?

As he looked around he saw somebody and the strange thing about that somebody was that there was a bright yellow "!" floating Over his head. A booming voice started speaking.

Something about azeroth and humans and lots of other things that Harry simply could not process as the voice just stopped making any sense whatsoever.

-Nice role-playing man.

The voice just came into his head. A nasally sound like electronics sounding over a bad microphone.

As he turned around he could see that he was no longer alone.

He was on …

What the hell!

He was standing through somebody.

Harry took a step to the side and looked down at himself.

His body had changed.

He was different, lighter, much lighter and bigger too, bigger like a man who had been lifting weights all his life.

This was the body of an adult, maybe 20-25 years old.

Pure muscle.

He was wearing what looked like a wizards dress.

As he took stock of himself he found a staff on his back and some sort of pouch at his belt.

The voice kept talking.

-You here to roleplay?

-where am I, What is this?

Another voice spoke up.

-Is this your first character?

-What do you mean character?

-You know, your toon, is this the first on you made ever?

The voice sounded more and more amused.

-Wait, toon I heard that before, that's what you call your character in WOW right?

Harry's voice was started to climb as the hysteria grabbed hold of him.

When the response came it had not changed in inflection at all.

-Yeah Toon is the L33T name for your character. So human mage for you, why did you call it Sairius?

The name had the effect of a cold shower on the-boy-who-lived.

-Uh, my god father,..., his name was Sirius but the name was unavailable so I took the closest I could find.

-tscool man, I play warlock, more fun on PVP.

Harry started moving forward towards the knight when the unfamiliar word came.

-OK stop, assume that I have never even played this game, can you walk me through what is going on?Even to him the tone in his voice was whiny but the combination of fear at this strange setting and grief at the loss of Sirius had deadened him to this.

-Do you want me to start with WASD or up from there?

Even though the question was worded mockingly the tone that Harry could hear had not changed.

-Ironically WASD, I don't even know what that is.

As he kept moving forward he saw, floating above the knights head a name, Deputy Willem.

When he thought of the person he had been talking to this was not the name that came into his head.

He opened his mouth to address Willem when a scroll appeared before his eyes.

-Okay well you're moving around so you at least got that, and using WASD or arrows is really the same. Next step is your spellbook, go ahead and open that.

Harry wondered what his spellbook might be when from his belt a large leatherbound tome opened next to the scroll from Willem.

-Would it be that thing that says objective or the one that says Fireball lvl1?

He could not keep the curiosity out of his voice, this world was so strange.

-The Fireball one, ok in there are the spells you know, if you put your mouse over them they'll tell you cost, cast time etc..., every other level you get new ones so open this book every time you train to check out what you want to use.

Even though the tone had not changed Harry could tell this was something the person he was speaking to knew by heart and was pretty bored with.

-The other one is a quest, see that guy in front of you with the yellow "!"?

-Yeah I see him.

-The quest popped up because you talked to him. Read it, do what it says and when you come back to him he will have a yellow "?" over his head, talk to him again and you get XP and money, rinse repeat until lvl 80.

-Anything else I should know?

The boy-who-lived realised that his invisible helper was running out of patience.

-Naa, just make sure and read the quests, they'll pretty much tutor you through the rest.

-Thank you very much for all the help.

-np.

Harry started at the response.

-np?

Another voice cut in.

-LOL it means no problem, you really are a noob or the craziest roleplayer I've ever met.

He blushed as the response came.

-Thanks but what is LOL?

Another voice responded.

-Laugh out loud and I say noob, no way he roleplays that much.

Before the incessant chatter could bring yet more questions then it could answer Harry turned his attention back to the scroll in front of him.

It was long and overly verbose but when he finished reading the first part he realised that the second part was titled objective and summarised it: Kill 8 Kobolds. Fair enough now the only problem was how to use the spells, he had no wand to cast them with and his "spellbook" did not hold an incantation or anything helpful, he had heard the word mana before. Hermione had been reading on Arithmancy and it was sometimes used to quantify the energy necessary to a spell but even then it was obscure what it was, and how much each wizard had.

Harry made his way around the chapel and found another man with an exclamation mark. As he came closer he saw the wolves to his left.

Those were cartoonish wolves, obviously design to depict slobbering and monstrous beasts but still not realistic in any way. Looking back at the man he started addressing him again when the,..., might as well call it "quest" popped up.

"Whatever is affecting the wolves, Bla bla bla... Kill these young diseased wolves, bla bla bla,..., Quest objective: Bring 8 pelts ba bla bla."

8 pelts got it. Harry touched the Accept at the bottom left of the scroll.

Now was going to be the hard part, the actual casting of spells.

Harry turned around and looked at one of the "Young Diseased Wolf". He opened his spellbook and looked through all 2 pages of it.

Fireball.

Frost Armor.

At least choices were not going to be a problem for now.

Harry looked from the wolf to his spellbook and decided to just try and see what happened.

He thought "Fireball".

His whole body moved, slightly crouching, both his hands moved together his left shoulder leaning forward, his hands were engulfed in flames, he felt the energy drawing together between his hands, building up and up until he threw his left hand towards the wolf and a ball of fire the size of his head flew out from it towards the wolf.

Harry realised 2 things as the ball of fire flew to the wolf, one, he had not been aiming and the wolf kept walking to the side as the fire traced a path of destruction towards it, two, a blue bar at the corner of his eye started blinking red. Looking at it he realised the bar was a picture of him, well of his current body with is name to the right of it. Two bars underneath it had one red With 52/52 Written on it and a blue one underneath now reading 143/165. What occupied his attention was the explosion that took place as the fireball flew true and hit the wolf despite his change of position and the sudden snarl as the wolf ran towards him.

"Fireball" the thought was barely completed when a red inscription flashed in the middle of his vision

You cannot perform that action

-What? "Fireball"!

To his relief he crouched once again and prepared the energy.

As the wolf bounded closer and closer Harry unleashed the energy and another Ball of incandescent material flew and hit the wolf right below its neck. This time the beast jumped up and after a brief spasm lay still on the ground with sparks coming out of its body.

Harry sat cross legged and breathed.

This was going to be a weird day.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>'Something's happened!'<p>

Hermione burst into the compartment shouting.

Neville and Ron had been playing exploding snap across from each other when the door slammed aside.

Ginny and Luna were each engrossed in their respective reading, Luna in an arithmancy book and Ginny in a novel she had borrowed last year from her mother.

Both boys shot to their feet upsetting there game and spilling the cards off the table.

Hermione caught her breath before starting again.

'We have to do something! Quick!' The girls face was getting redder as her exclamations gained in volume.

As she stepped into the compartment Ginny stood up and caught her right arm.

'What happened Hermione? Why do you think something happened to him?

Hermione turned to look at her, the panic in her was jumbling everything, the only thing coming through loud enough was that something had happened to Harry.

'What is it Hermione?' Neville grabbed her other arm reaching over Luna to do so.

'The last time we saw him he was talking to Dean, what makes you thin something happened?' He tried to keep an even tone as he spoke, hoping that Hermione would calm down.

'Just tell us what you saw Hermione, we can go from there.'

The serious tone in Luna's voice of all people cut through some of the mental fog.

'I,..., I just came from Seamus and Dean's compartment, I wanted to see if Harry was all right.' The image of the shamble came back to her.

'It looks like there was an explosion in there, scorch marks everywhere, the stuff from there trunks all over the place. I think somebody abducted them!' Her voice broke as she finished her sentence.

Ron and Neville exchanged a glance, Hermione did tend to fly off the handle with little or no provocation but even for her this was a little too hysterical.

'Let's go see, Hermione stay here with Ginny, sit down, we'll take care of it.' Neville's even low tone was strange enough that she obeyed it, sitting down next to Luna as her limbs started shaking.

Both boys made their way down the train, passing rows of heads looking up and down the corridor wondering what the ruckus was about.

Ron reached the compartment first and as he opened the door for Neville he couldn't help but think that their friend might not be wrong.

'Bloody Hell!' The exclamation came from Neville as he stared at what remained of he compartment itself.

It had been destroyed, not like an explosion would. Like 15 different firecrackers had been set off in it at the same time. Both trunks had been ripped apart, their content spilling onto the what as left of the seats. The seats themselves looked like a dragon had bitten into them,large semicircles were missing from almost everyone of them.

'No blood.' This had come from Ron in a slightly high pitched voice.

'Say what?' Neville's brain was still working through the obvious destruction and what could possibly have caused this and left both walls and window intact when Ron's comment entered is brain.

'Look around , there's no blood, at all, they might have escaped before whatever it is happened.'

Neville looked carefully at everything. Ink everywhere from the spilled trunks, some potion ingredients but he was forced to admit that Ron was right, whatever had bitten into the seats had obviously not happened while their friends were in the compartment.

'What now?'

'I think we need to warn Dumbledore about this, make sure he starts looking for them before whatever did this catches up to the three of them.'

They ran back to their compartment, pushing past the people that started coming out in the corridor.

Neville slowed down when he arrived at the door and started breathing deeply.

They looked at each other when their breathing evened out and straightening up they stepped in.

Luna was patting Hermione gently on the back as she made soothing noises.

Hermione seemed to be coming back from the verge of hysterics as she looked up to the two boys with a questioning look.

Ron tried to use he same tone Neville had been when he started describing what they had found.

'It looks like they had to get off the train in a hurry. Something attacked them, something big, it ate some of the seats in there, but it looks like they got away clean, no blood anywhere.' He added the last when he saw the bushy haired girls eyes getting wider.

'They might have jumped out the window from the look of it, we need to contact the headmaster right away, tell him what happen, even with the charms on the track they might need help.

Ginny's horrified look grew as he kept talking.

Luna spoke up.

'Use Pigwidgeon Ron. He can get there the fastest.'

Ron rushed to his pet's cage and grabbed the bird before it could do its annoying fluttering. As he turned around he saw Neville industriously writing on a piece of parchment before handing it to him.

As he threw the owl out the window Hermione spoke up.

'What do we do now?' the edge of hysteria had leak out of her voice only to be replaced by tears that she was using all her not unconsiderable will to hold.

'Now, we wait.'


	4. Chapter 4

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>It had only been a couple of hours. The worry about what he was doing and how he got there had faded. Magic. An unpleasant and empty answer but unfortunately true.<p>

He had wondered why he started questing rather then look for an exit and had concluded that being in the game had changed him somehow, changed him more profoundly then his appearance. Fear, worry, Hunger. All those were there but they were distant, like he was seeing them through a two way glass, they were there and he could see and hear them but despite their best effort they could not touch him.

There was something there, an urge, not burning like anger or even cold like hate just,..., a feeling like the north pole to a compass, he could feel the quests in his mind, gently pulling and pushing to have him complete them, even without the arrow in front of him he would have known were to go.

He had gotten his 10th level now and though the monsters he was fighting had gotten significantly more dangerous, going as far as attacking him on sight rather then responding to his attacks, he was getting the hang of his spells, the time they took to cast as well as their mana cost.

He stood in front of Anastasia as she finished teaching him the new spells, including the water conjuring one which turned out to be the most useful so far.

'Yes, thank you Jennea, now what would you like me to do for you?' He said this more to talk then anything, the chatter on the trade channel had gotten to him quickly and he mostly ignored it but after 2 hours of silence he felt like using his voice a little.

'This world has been victim to massive mystic struggles,' The voice was a soft contralto and her tone was that of a prophet imparting the latest set of commands from on high. It belied the importance of the quest which even Harry realized was just a generic fetch quest more for the benefit of teaching him how to use his new Frost Nova spell then because that water sample was critically needed to defend against the demonic Burning Crusade that had caused all of this turmoil.

He ran out of the tower, and jumped down, the fall hurt a little but he recuperated so fast, by the time he was out of the city he would be fine.

He passed the myriads of colorful characters, selling, buying and trading there even more colorful items, yelling at the top of their lungs for some item they needed, wanted or simply had and wanted rid of. He had been at the auction house to sell both magical items he had found and all the ore and leather he had accumulated but since it had only been an hour he was not expecting any results soon.

He ran out of the gates and could not help but look back.

Even for a video game, this was breath taking. The city was magnificent, from its white walls to the paved streets, the giant statues of past heroes saluting all who passed between them.

He turned back and hung a right out the gates, the wolves and spiders were far enough that he did not worry about them, he jumped over the boulder and started down the hill.

That was when the first defias struck. The blow was not hard as such but Harry had not expected it and it stopped him in his tracks.

He turned to start attacking when a fireball caught him in the back.

The impact staggered him and his fireball spell reset.

'Damn.' The curse had been heartfelt, he had yet to be attacked with something that powerful, it hurt.

He focused on the first attacker in front of him, the Defias Bandit was still stabbing him when the first fireball caught him in the chest. The impact barely fazed his assailant and he continued attacking.

The second Fireball hit him and again he barely staggered. Harry's fear was starting to come through, he could see his health going steadily down as the Fireball hit him again. He cast his Fireblast and the Bandit fell. One down, one to go. He turned around and felt the third blast hit him. A message popped in his vision.

Low Health.

'Damn, Damn, Damn.' The cooldown on his fireblast was 8 seconds and his global cooldown had barely reset. He sighted on the Rogue Wizard and shifted his position to start casting his fireball. Before he could complete his spell he saw the next ball come hurtling towards him, once again his casting was interrupted. As the fireball left his hands he realized that he would not make it. The last spell had brought him low enough that unless he dodged the next one he would die. He clenched his jaw and prepared for the impact. The heat from the spell startled him as it passed by him. Missed. He cast his next spell wit agonizing slowness. The spell was leaving his hand when he felt the fire reap through him.

The pain was less then he imagined, a brief flash like a band aid being torn off, only this time the band aid was all over his skin, and then nothing.

He lay there on the ground as the wizard who had finally finished The-Boy-Who-Lived turned around like it was nothing.

Then a window popped up in front of him:

6 minutes until release

Release spirit

This did not feel like a normal death. He had never died before obviously but he had high doubts about an option to release your soul.

He thought about touching the window when he saw the button on it depress.

The sensation that followed was akin to diving in a swimming pool at the height of summer, even though he could not feel the fire from the spells as a real burn he could not stop himself from sighing as the peacefulness enveloped his mind again.

Harry stood up and looked around.

The afterlife had a definite WOW look to it.

The only thing he had not seen before was the angel standing in front of him.

An icon had appeared at the corner of his vision. It calmly informed him that he was a ghost now but that he could easily be resurrected by walking to his corpse or speaking to the unearthly apparition before him.

The-Boy-Who-No-Longer-Lived wondered if Voldemort had felt the same on that fateful Halloween night.

He turned to the spirit healer and mentally reached out as he had been doing for all his quests.

The screen that appeared did not come as any surprise though what it had to say was.

'So this one time I can be resurrected without any issues but from my next level on there will be a 'penalty'?' He was not expecting a reply but he had found that voicing thought such as this helped him make decisions.

Harry turned from the angel.

'Might as well see what the alternative is.' He started jogging to his lifeless remains through the twilight landscape, eerily empty of humans or animals. As he progressed over fences and around trees he realized that he could see through his hands and even his legs let him see the ground underneath his sandals.

He was so busy looking around that he barely registered the first critter he walked through. He instantly tensed for a fight when he realized that the wolf had completely ignored him.

Everything ignores you wen you're dead. Maybe that was why it felt so nice, a wonderful contrast to his normal life where no matter what he did he could not escape the bloody spotlight.

Another window choose this though to manifest.

Resurrect now?

Resurrect.

He looked around before doing so. As much as not being really dead was a relief he did not want a repeat of last time.

He stepped away from any threat and accepted the offer.

The sensation was like stepping in a pair of comfortable slippers, warm and familiar.

'I guess we live and learn, now about that water sample.'


	5. Chapter 5

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>The station was a beehive of frantic activity when the train finally came into the station.<p>

The aurors had cordoned off the platform itself and parents were milling about trying to find out what was going on.

Harry's friends all but jumped off the train as it came to a halt when they saw Dumbledore standing ram rod straight next to the tracks, his expression was thunderous, like an angry bull barely contained by his usual good manners.

'Mr Weasley, Ms Weasley, Mr Longbottom, Ms Granger, Ms Lovegood, stay right here, Mr Shacklebolt will answer any questions you may have while I inspect the compartment in question.' This was delivered so fast that the students did not have time to respond as the headmaster disappeared inside the train.

The throng of children rushing to their parents impeded the group from reaching the two aurors.

Neville was the first to speak as Kingsley followed by his, currently blonde, sidekick along side them.

'Did you find them? Are they all right?'

'Did whatever attacked them get loose?' Ron followed.

Luna shook her head at this when the two aurors were close enough that she could read their expression.

'No Ron, they haven't found anything or the Headmaster would not be so,' She paused thoughtfully. 'Upset right now, Would he Ms Tonks?'

The aurors hair briefly flashed to red before going to white as she opener her mouth to answer.

'Nothing on the track, we tried to do some guesswork as to about where it happened but even going as far back as Hogsmeade there was no trace of somebody getting off the train.'

Hermione hearing this chimed in;

'What about apparition, portkeys, You-Know-Who has used them in the past.'

Shacklebolt and Tonks exchanged a look.

'What, What is it?' Ginny's voice for the first time since all this had started showed traces of fear.

It was Kingsley who spoke up.

'About 10 min out of Hogsmeade we found some traces of portal magic.' The horrified look on their faces urged him on. 'Nothing specific, this was NOT a directed portal, somebody might have had an unusually strong bout of accidental magic or something.' As he started to flounder in his explanation, Tonks cut in.

'We're still looking into it so hush hush ok?' She looked meaningfully into their eyes in turn.

'Anything else? At all? It could have been broomsticks or a carpet or …' Luna once again grabbed Hermione's hand when the panicked rant started.

Hermione was alternating between darting anxious looks to both adults and staring at the door the headmaster had rushed through.

Neville was about to speak up again when the headmaster stepped out of the train again.

It had been long enough that all but the gawkers had left the platform and as he set foot on the platform he sweeped straight towards them.

'Miss Tonks, it appears that your original summary was at least partially correct. There was indeed traces of portal magic, not an accidental burst though, this seems to have emanated from a device in Mr Thomas' possession. What we found is the interaction between this magic and whatever attacked them.'

All of them peered up at this.

'Does it mean Harry is ok?' Luna looked straight up to Dumbledore's face.

The headmaster's eyes tightened up at this.

;No Ms Lovegood, it merely means that he was not taken away by our adversary in this conflict, it means that whatever spirited them away might not have had a set destination in mind and they could be anywhere in the British isles.'

Hermione could not hold the fear in any longer.

'What could help? What could we do to find out where he's gone? Do you think we need to look into this portal? Do you think Dean's mother will know more? Can we floo her from here?" The tirade had been delivered without pause for breath and she suddenly had to stop to take a deep lungful.

Tonks patted her on the back gently as she gulped for air.

'Its ok Hermione, we'll do the investigating, I think you should go to your parents, as a matter of fact you should all go, they must be frantic by now.' She pushed her gently towards the end of the platform while glancing meaningfully at the headmaster.

Dumbledore turned to Neville who seemed to be taking this the calmest.

'Mr longbottom, a word if you please.' As Neville turned to him he reached inside his robes and pressed a small glass bottle into Neville's hand.

'This is a calming draught, it will not erase everything but it will help Ms Granger take the edge off for the next few days. Would you be so kind as to pass this on to her parents, if she is not willing to ingest it please advise them that it will go perfectly unnoticed in most beverages, especially tea.'

Neville looked the man in the eye as he took the potion.

'Of course Sir, I'll make sure they get it. Thank you.'

Neville quickly rejoined the rest of the group as they passed through the gate to Muggle London.

Their families had indeed been standing right at the barrier when they came out.

Ms. Weasley was the calmest of the lot and it occurred to him that this was probably because she was a part of the order and she already knew what had happened. His grandmother was composed but he had spotted the look of relief that had flashed over her features. He could not help but smile at that, she was stern and had tried to make him into a new son to replace the one she had all but lost but she cared for him just as much if not more then for his father.

Mr Lovegood was overjoyed to see his daughter as a single father was but he acted as if there had been no delay and his child had stepped of the platform exactly when he thought she would.

The only anxiety seemed to seep out of the Grangers. All three of them seemed to sport the same expression of concern and when the two adults spotted their daughter they immediately rushed to her and started fussing an asking her what had happened. The quiet explanation seemed to quiet at least the adults a little and by the time Neville had stepped within earshot there face expressed more sympathy for their daughter's plight then actual concern.

'Mr and Ms Granger?' All three of the turned to him. 'My name is Neville Longbottom, I do not believe we have been formerly introduced, I am in Hermione's classes.' He paused slightly. 'Did Hermione explain what happened?' A their nods he continued. 'The headmaster gave me this,' He proffered the bottle to Ms Granger who took it gently. 'Its a calming draught, in case Hermione needs it.'

Between the hysterics earlier and the shock of the news from the headmaster Hermione did not have the energy to disagree with the idea and simply nodded her head at her father when he looked inquiringly at her.

'Thank you Mr Longbottom, we'll make sure she takes it' With a nod Neville went to rejoin his Grandmother. This was going to be a long summer if they did not get an answer about this quickly.


	6. Chapter 6

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>There had been many deaths. Not the least of which had been in the dungeons under westfall where the healer had decided to go AFK, the entire party had been wiped. And lets not forget Wailing Caverns where the hunter had jut jumped off into the river and his pet had gone all the way around the lip where they had most definitely NOT cleared and of course pulled every single raptor in the place. He was still wondering why everybody had called the dwarf "leeroy" from that point on.<p>

Every death was slightly unpleasant but with very one of them he was getting inured to the fear associated with it. The last one had been hilariously easy since he had practically died in the cemetery.

He was making his way back to lakeshire after getting the last black whelp. Those things hurt, and they were close enough the the gnols that more then once he had had to run away in order to survive, dying might not be too painful but still.

His mail icon popped up as he stepped into town to turn in all his quest, this one however was not from the AH. Running to the mail box in front of the inn he went through his backpack, ordering what was to be sold, what was to be auctioned and what needed keeping, like the potions he had finally realized how to use.

Harry looked around as he made his way around town. This was what he had imagined when he was a child. A magical village like it is supposed to be. Elves in giant combat armor fishing next to small children. Dwarfs running through the village on their way to fulfill the quest given unto them by their king, his bear taller then he was at his heel. And in the middle of all this, the villager living their lives peacefully, without fear or concerns for their well being.

Harry stepped up to the mailbox with a smile on his face.

The letters were mostly from the AH, money in reasonably large amounts from all the things he had almost sold for a few coppers just to empty his bag.

The one that stood out was a quest letter. He read through it. The sender wanted him to come over so he could learn to ride.

A horse?

Harry had never been horse back riding before.

Oh he had ridden Buckbeak and since he had arrived on Azeroth he had more then a couple of times ridden on Hyppogryphs from place to place but this as different. He was being offered his own horse.

Oh well, he had to go back to Stormwind anyway, he might as well stop there on the way.

The-Boy-Who-Kept-Running-To-His-Corpse set out.

He ran straight off the pier rather the run around the lake.

The first time he had had to fight underwater brought unfortunate memories of the 2nd task until he realized that in this reality he could hold his breath for 3 minutes.

He swam across the lake. He had never really learned the breast stroke but the first time he had had to dive in water in this realm his body had naturally adopted it.

He reached the other side after a few seconds and immediately jumped ashore.

In front of him was the cemetery from which he had his most recent resurrection and right behind that a hug hill topped by a strange rock formation.

He kept running up the hill angling right as he crested it in the direction of Elwynn Forest.

As he jumped a fallen log he noticed the spider to his right. It was low level enough that he was not worried about a possible encounter but he had better things to do.

The spider noticed and started hurrying towards him, all 8 of its legs scuttling madly.

Harry spared it a glance and as soon as it came within striking range he activated his frost nova.

Cold spread out from his body almost with the speed of thought. He could feel the trickle of energy leaving his body an encasing the body of the monster in ice. The damage to it was negligible but that was not its purpose. Harry laughed out loud as he ran on and the arachnid was left there, frozen in place to click listlessly after him.

He ran on, past monsters and guards, he only stopped twice to mine the copper he found. He had no use for it for now but it sold quite well on the auction house.

He had been running for 5 minutes when the outskirts of the logging camp camp into view. He looked down into the village and even without the bright yellow "?" he would have guessed where to go. The villager was standing in the middle of the horse paddock, surrounded by horses, definitely a clue.

He ran to her, jumping over obstacles and around trees.

Even after a day in this place he was still taken by surprise sometimes. Especially after such a long run he had no urge to breath heavily.

He turned slightly and thought at the young lady in front of him.

He had started skipping through quest text but this one he was curious to read.

A smile spread across his face as he read. This was a tutorial quest, not designed to be difficult in any way, just teach him something new about the world.

He completed the quest and immediately spoke to the riding trainer. 4 gold was a stiff price, he only had gathered about 10 gold and 9 of that was from the AH, but it had only been 24 hours and he still had half the items he had put on that had not come back yet.

He bought the skill and turning back he spoke to the person selling the horses themselves.

The choice was by no stretch of the imagination vast: Brown, Chestnut or Pinto.

Ah well, so much for the heroic white stallion. Harry bought the Chestnut mare.

After using the bridle he immediately opened his spellbook and summoned his horse.

After a few seconds of casting a flash of smoke engulfed him and when his vision cleared he was standing astride a beautiful horse. She looked docile as anything with her straight mane and calm stance.

Harry gently tugged the reins to the left and turned towards Stormwind.

As he trotted off he jumped over the paddock fence and continued on his way. This was fun, almost as fun as a broomstick. Much slower of course but this had a peacefulness to it, something where he could point her in the direction he wanted to go and just let his mind wander. He kept daydreaming, absentmindedly jumping over streams and fallen rocks, ignoring for once the legion of wolves bears and assorted defias that even had he been on foot he would not have paused to kill.

He remembered a discussion he had overheard once, Between Alicia and Katie in the library. At the time it had made no sense. Katie was going on and on about her horse, Fidget, and how much better she felt after riding her. She had tried to convey to Alicia the feeling and was getting tangled up in words, the more she spoke the less clear it was to Alicia what she was talking until finally she had just given up and said she should try it ad then she would understand.

He understood.

Too soon the gates of stormwind came into view. Harry stayed on his mare as he passed the guards at the gate and continued across the bridge into the city proper. It was fun to ride straight through and jump over other peoples head as he passed them. He turned left at the main square an went straight to the mage tower. He was getting to know the city now and barely had to pause to remember where to turn. He continued straight into the magic district, up the hill and on the winding path that led up the the mage tower. He passed the portal o the blasted lands on the lower chamber and started up the path when his horse vanished and he was dropped to the ground.

He stopped in shock.

What happened?

He reopened his spellbook and tried to cast the conjuration again when he noticed the warning on the spell itself. It could only be summoned when not in combat and outdoors.

Fair enough. He closed his spellbook and continued to make his way up the tower. He passed through the magical gate that would transport him to the hidden chamber and stepped right up to his trainer on the far corner and started talking to her. The list of new spells was huge compared to the last few times he had come up here, he started learning all of them when one caught his eye.

Blink.

Reading the description Harry realized that this was a short rage version of apparition. That could be fun.

As he finished the list he turned around slowly and sighted on the other side of the room.

The portal trainer was on that side. Harry concentrated on him and launched the spell. There was no physical sensation to accompany the power leaving his body, only the disorientation of suddenly finding himself with is nose to the wall rather then standing in front of the portal trainer.

He turned around and stepped forward.

The trainer turned around and the learning window opened.

Harry read through the description.

He read on to the next one, Portal to Stormwind.

This was awesome, no more walking back, no more running though the city, just teleport straight here. He could get with that.

He learned the teleport to stormwind and stepped back now to learn all of the other ones available.

This was starting to get fun.


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>It had been 3 days.<p>

3 Days without the slightest news.

Tonks still came over everyday to check on her and make sure she was ok.

Tonight was going to be an exception, her aunt was coming over for dinner.

She lived in Ireland and only visited once every other year, not because she did not like her brother but her husbands family was so vast even with a visit a month to his siblings this was the most they could manage.

Aunt Dora was the good aunt, she was the one who always bought the books Hermione had been secretly wanting and was waiting for the paperback version to buy. She was the aunt Hermione called the first time she had needed to talk to a woman not her mother.

She had had 2 children, the second she often said she had had to blackmail her husband into having.

-Hermione, Sean and Dora are here.

The potion she had been taking had prevented any hysterics but it did not contain the joy she was feeling at seeing her favorite aunt.

She rushed out of her room and down the 2 flights of stairs.

When she stepped down the last landing she caught sight of everybody and stopped.

Sean was one of those man that if it were not that it was so skinny would be mistaken for Santa Claus. He was tall, 6' at least, with white hair and beard. He always had a permanent smile on his face and a kind word for children.

Her aunt was more like Hermione, 5'6" with thick brown hair that she always tied back.

Her features were thinner, more like a china doll and with her pale complexion she always gave the impression of a porcelain figure.

Her two sons stood together next to their dad. Conner was the oldest by 14 months and was always quick to remind his brother of that. Even at 14 he stood as tall as his mother with the promise of much more to come, he had short blond hair that lay quietly on his head, he had a black eye and huge grin on his face. His clothes looked like they had been specially cleaned and pressed so he would look presentable. It was too bad that he and his brother now looked like Harry after a particularly difficult Quidditch practice. They were not "covered" in mud, not exactly. Hermione could see where an attempt had been made to straighten out their clothes and brush some of the dirt away but knowing her cousins it was like having the Weasley twins behave while they were hanging out together, an interesting thought exercise but ultimately futile.

Murphy was less scruffy looking then is brother but then again, he tended to sneak attack his brother rather then confront him head on.

-'Hey Mione how are you lass?' Her uncle grinned at her.

-'I'm ok Uncle Sean, how are you guys?' She could not help but smile back as she stepped forward and hugged her aunt.

She missed the looked that the adults exchanged over her head.

'That's good to hear Hermione, now why don't you go upstairs and show Murphy where he can plug in his laptop.' She turned to her brother. 'You guys have WiFi right?'

Hermione's father shook his head.

-'No but Hermione has a CAT5 in her room so he can use that, he just needs to unplug her laptop.'

The ploy to get rid of the kids had not passed her by and she turned to her dad with a suspicious look.

When he nodded at her seriously she turned to her cousins.

-'Come on, you can show me why you so desperately need to get online.'

As they climbed up the stairs she faintly heard Dora ask,

-'What happened?'

Before they turned on the first landing and continued on up.

-'So what's up Mione?' It was Conner who spoke up.

As she opened the door to her room she turned to answer.

-'One of my best friends disappeared last week.'

She had expected shock, surprise, commiseration, what she had not expected was the intense look they both gave her.

-'We were on the train from school when he got abducted, him and two other boys from my year,' She said all this calmly only thanks to the potion still coursing through her, 'The police is still looking but we've had no news.'

-'When was the last time you spoke to the police?' Murphy was plugging in his laptop on Hermione's docking station.

-'They came this afternoon to ask a couple more questions about what happened but that's about it.'

As the computer booted up Conner patted her on the shoulder.

-'Come on ragazza, let's take your mind off of this for a few hours, Murphy here's got a new and entertaining addiction that he's been wanting to show you.'

Hermione turned to the laptop as a blue box popped up on screen with a little Play button on the bottom right.

-'Before you ask, this is called World Of Warcraft, its a video game started a few years back, it's a fantasy roleplaying game that you play online.' Murphy was getting into the explanation. 'I wanted to show it to you 'cuz I think it'll help you get your mind off things plus, I wont be able to use it over the summer so I figured I could show it to you and if you like it we can install the client on your laptop and you can play with my account until I get back, just use your own character, not mine.

As the character screen appeared in front of her she wondered if it was the potion that made it seem like a good idea.

-'Ok, so this the main screen,' He pointed to the list to the right of the character shifting from foot to foot. 'Here's the list of all the characters on this server.'

Conner pointed to the top of the list.

-'This is where you choose your server. Right now your on Coilfang but its PVP so if you want to start maybe you should try PVE,' He clicked on the change realm button and a list appeared. 'How about Rexxar, we only have one character on it and its low pop so you wont have any troubles with lagging.

-'How about you log in and show me how it goes?' She looked at Murphy who was already grinning wide at this.

-'So that boy that disappeared, it's that Harry you tell us so much about right?'

Hermione smiled at that between Ron and Harry her letters to them sounded like the school she was at had maybe 6 people total besides the teachers.

-'Yes, that's him.'

-'Well from what you told us he's a tough son of a mother, he'll be fine,' Murphy remembered that most end of year stories had involved a trip to the hospital and amended this. 'He'll be alive is what I'm trying to say.'

Hermione laughed as she realized why her little cousin had changed his mind halfway through his sentence.

-'You have no idea how hard I'm wishing that you're right.'

Murphy grabbed her other shoulder.

-'Tell you what cousin, if it turns out he's not perfectly ok, you give us a call and we'll make sure that whoever it was that so much as mussed his hair meets St. Peter via the expressway.'

She grabbed both cousins in a fierce hug.

-'You'll be the first to know, now let's take a look at that video game you talk so much about.'


	8. Chapter 8

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>The instance had started like most of the others he had done before.<p>

Finding a group was easy, it was making sure the healer and the tank actually accepted and stayed that was difficult. The tank was sometimes problematic but what he had gathered from chat was that they started becoming entitled twat donkeys at level 80, before that they were just angry when they died.

He had joined this group at the beginning of RFK and starting badly it had only gone downhill from there.

-Come on healer do your job.

The tank, a Draenei warrior named connection had died once again after pulling 7 of the pig like monsters all the way around the bend in the corridor so that no one had a line of sight to assist in the attack.

-Quit pulling out of LOS. Stay with us.

The healer, a night elf priestess named Kelinda had been doing a fine job so far of keeping everyone except this idiot not only alive but not even close to being dead. Even the hunter's tiger hadn't died once.

Harry was sitting down to drink when a screen popped up in his field of vision.

A vote has been initiated to kick Kelinda from your group

Yes No

It was the first time he had seen this. Since the healers name was the one on this he obviously rejected this out of hand, the issue was not the healer but the tank.

He had died enough times in the last week that it no longer phased him, the only issue was the money spent repairing his armor, if this continued much longer he would finish this instance naked which as a mage was not such a big deal, the hunter and the warrior needed the weapons to fight though.

-'I'm sorry guys, my cousin just let me play with his acct and this is my first dungeon.'

Kelinda was trying to apologize for this stupid warriors mistakes.

-'Your doing fine, its him that's the problem.'

Harry pointed to the warrior.

Connection was wisely ignoring the byplay that his poor playing caused and kept running forward over the vine bridge.

Thank fully this instance was almost over, just another room of bats and one more of pigs and the last boss.

Harry had not been more glad of the conjured food and water then right now, at least it cost him nothing to stop in the middle of drinking to stop the idiot Draenei from dying yet again.

He cast constantly, missiles, bolts and fireballs, he stopped thinking about it and let his rotation take over as he concentrated on the flow of magic going out of him and looked out for any stray target trying to go for the healer or calling for reinforcements.

As the last room was cleared he sat down next to Kelinda and offered her a few bottles of spring water.

It tasted, which was amazing all of its own that it tasted at all, just like bottled water, but he could feel it energizing him, replenishing the magics he spent so freely in combat.

He whispered to the priestess.

-'So you started playing today?'

She did not turn to him as she responded.

-'Yes, my cousins are going on an extend trip for the summer and they thought it would keep me busy for a while. You?'

-'I started a week ago but I've been playing this guy non stop. It's fascinating to find out what kind of unadulterated second hand food humans can be when protected by anonymity.

She nodded at this.

-'I have a teacher who is a complete jerk but compared to the people here he seems like the epitome of kindness.

The warrior had started the boss fight and both of them jumped forward to help.

Compared to the whole dungeon this creature was barely a challenge, especially with a full mana store, Harry barely had to go through 2 rotations before the congratulations screen popped up.

Looking through the rewards and seeing no Cloth or weapons he could use he simply greeded on all of them and turned to the night elf.

-'If your cousin has a character on Rexxar, friend me, we can quest together.

He winked at her before leaving the group and teleporting away.

He found himself back in Ashenvale, going up the river to kill those blasted satyrs.

He immediately queued back for a dungeon, as fun as questing was he still got both more XP and money from a single dungeon played all the way through then a full hour of questing.

As he cast his first frostbolt he wondered if that night elf would take him up on his offer.


	9. Chapter 9

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>Hermione was genuinely smiling.<p>

She had never been much of a gamer but she could see the appeal.

The game world was tailored to challenge the player, give them something that is just on the verge of too hard and at the same time make it see like the whole world hangs in the balance, square on the characters shoulder whether every single man woman and child in Azeroth lives or dies.

She laughed as another player had once again assumed that she was a boy. Despite the statistics saying that one in every five player was an IRL girl the default assumption was that the females, 80% of the characters with the exception of Taurens if she was any judge, was played by man living in their parents basement.

The characters Murphy had used were reasonably broad in the spectrum of level and she had been able to enjoy trying pretty much everything across the world of Azeroth.

-'Hermione dear it's time for dinner.' Her mother called out.

She logged off and started the shut down of the computer before responding.

-'I'm coming mom.'

As she stepped on the bottom landing she saw her parents giving each other significant glances.

She didn't mind, she still used the potions from time to time but her cousins had been right, this was a great distraction.

-'What's for dinner Dad?' she asked sniffing at the covered pots.

With a flourish and a smile her dad lifted the lid.

The smell hit her first. It was a subtle mix of lemon and almonds, mixing with trout laying underneath it only helped widen the grin on her face.

-'That smells delicious dad, thank you.'

The good mood seemed to be infectious as her dad responded with a bigger grin still.

-'You're the one that keeps telling me fish is good for the brain, I figured it was time I started listening to you,' He put the lid down and started serving the fragrant dish to the three of them. 'You're mother deserves some credit too though, she's the one who made the rice.' He gestured to the covered frying pan.

-'That's right honey, now sit down and tell us about what you've been up to up there.' She looked casually at her daughter as she took a bite of fish.

Still smiling their daughter launched in a complex explanation of the intricacies of the game and what it involved, psychologically as well as physically.

She was always glad of the summer months when she could finally speak with people who could follow her trains of thoughts and attain the same logical conclusions she did.

Her mother was the one that started debating on the conclusions her daughter was drawing of world saving and exhilaration of challenges that the players could overcome. Mr. Granger had like most people done a stint of D&D in college and understood the fantastic side of what she was talking about with ironically a clearer understanding then when she talked about the magical world. The food had long been finished and they had retired to the living room an hour ago.

Hermione was winding down on both the details of the world and her description of the appeal when she mentioned her last dungeon crawl.

-'I'm sorry dear, did you say Sirius? Wasn't that you little friends godfather's name?' Her mother asked offhandedly.

-'No mother his name is Sairius, with an a, but it does sound similar.' The words brought back some of the worry that she felt for her best friend, she tried to hide it but it had been a week and a half now and she had read enough reports on kidnapping to know that after 48 hrs the chance of him still being alive were pretty much nil.

-'Are you alright dear?'

The concern in her father's voice was evident and she tried to put up a brave front to help give them a little peace of mind.

-'I think it's that delicious meal getting to me dad I should probably head to bed.' She started standing up.

-'You have a good night Hermione.'

She smiled at her dad.

-'And don't play that game till all hours of the night ok?'

She had not thought of going back to the game until her mother suggested it.

Maybe that was a good idea.

She smiled again.

-'I'll try mom, good night.'

She scampered up the stair.

With a little luck Murphy HAD a character on Rexxar and she could start playing with Sairius again if he was still logged on.


	10. Chapter 10

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>He had been expecting the spiral of light that accompanied a new level.<p>

What he had not expected was the perfect timing as his fireball dealt the last blow to High Inquisitor Whitemane.

His vision field with all the achievements, Level 40, scarlet monastery, Cathedral.

-'Grats.'

-'Congratulations.'

-'Gratz.'

-'W00t!.'

He laughed at the enthusiasm of the people with him. Sometimes you could find groups like this where everyone knew exactly what to do, when to wait and when to keep on going and it made the whole instance a great experience to share.

-'Thank you gentleman and ladies, it's been a pleasure.'

He activated the group interface and felt the spell teleport him out of the monastery and back to Stranglethorn.

He had been in the middle of a fight when the call had come but now he had better things to do.

He opened his spellbook again and leafing through he found the spell to send him to stormwind.

He had been paranoid enough to buy 20 Rune of Teleportation so he had plenty of spares. He closed the book and started casting the spell.

He felt the magic envelope him and realized it was surprisingly small amount for something so powerful.

His vista suddenly changed from steamy jungle to the carefully groomed mage tower and he smiled. Magic was really awesome when you actually used it.

He used his Blink to jump to the trainer and thought at her.

The training window opened and he started going through the list.

It was not very long but included the first amelioration to his armor spell, that would come in handy.

The new "combustion" seemed pretty cool, he would need to try it out.

He was about to use his hearthstone when he noticed the Portal trainer on the other side of the room.

Wasn't there another increment at level 40?

When he thought at her there was only one training there : Portal Stormwind.

He bought it when he saw that this was a group thing, why not, it might be nice for people in dungeons.

Going through his spellbook he opened the Teleport Ironforge and started using it, after all if he had a new portal to here maybe there was one for the other cities.

Ironforge materialized in front of his eyes and he took an unnecessary step forward before thinking at the portal trainer there. He had barely finished learning the new spell when he opened his spellbook again and checked where the next teleportation would take him.

The Exodar was a creepy place, all the crystals hanging transparent confused him and he always tried to stay here as little as possible. He barely learned the spell when he opened his spell book, that was the last teleport spell.

He stopped as he tried to think, that wasn't right Humans, Dwarfs and Gnomes, Draeneis, what about the elves?

-'How do you get to the elf main city?

-'Darnassus?'

The voices on the chat had become a soft background noise for the past weeks but every time he addressed them directly they were as clear as day.

-'Yes Darnassus.'

-'Go to Auberdine, the boat on the right goes to the Rutheran village, at the top of the hill there there's a portal, walk through it and you're there.'

-'Thanks.'

He stepped out of the Exodar and mounted his horse.

It had become almost natural to summon the animal when he stepped outside, for short distances he would just blink from place to place but when he had to walk he actually took the time to ride this horse.

He rode to the dock and waited for the boat that would take him back to the main land. There was always someone waiting there when he was and this time he saw the cheetah that was a druid. For some reason all the other players would always jump, even when running in a straight line they kept jumping up and down. He wondered if they were under the impression that it made them run faster or if they simply needed something to do with there hands back in the real world while there avatars actually took action.

The boat ride wasn't bad, mostly watching as the sea floated gently by. He wondered at the seesaw motion, he had heard of seasickness but obviously his avatar was immune.

On the dock he summoned his horse once again and almost immediately took a left to the other boat.

He tried to enjoy the calm as he watched the island come into view. It was the root of a single tree, hollowed out by magic.

He gaped still at the extent to which those people put their magic, they actually used their imaginations to make things of beauty and power, not petty bureaucrats making laws to stop one another from making yet another useful thing.

Shaking his head he rode off the boat and straight up the path.

He barely hesitated at the pink mist guarded by two powerful looking guards.

Once again his scenery changed and he found himself on a tiny island, barely 30 ft across, looking at a tree maybe 200 ft high.

As he ran around it he saw that far from being just a tree it had been grown in the shape of a fighting bear.

What stopped him was the floating bridges going to the other parts of the city.

He sat motionless on his horse as the brightly clad elves ran around across and sometimes through him.

Finally gathering his thoughts he asked a guard for the directions to the portal trainer.

He galloped across the low bridge going to the temple and once again marveled at the very scope of construction in this place.

His horse vanishing he kept running to the elf standing by the pool.

Thinking at her he quickly learned the portal spell and immediately turned away to get back out.

As he stepped out he saw another mage coming up the bridge on a tiger.

-'That is awesome!'

-'The tiger?'

-'Yeah it's cool, where can I get one?'

-'The trainer is on the other side of the bank from here, it's the one with the tigers.

-'Sweet, thanks.'

He jumped on his horse and raced to the indicated location.

It WAS hard to miss, even if the giant tigers had not been a big clue.

As he spoke to the vendor he realized that the trainer had something to say too.

He ended the conversation with him and turned to her.

There was a new level of Riding available.

90 gold was child's play with the amounts he had been received from the auction house and he gladly paid it.

Turning back he looked through the mounts available, there were now 6 of them.

Looking at them one by one he realized that they were grouped by speed, fast and very fast and then only the color distinguished them.

After only a few minutes he choose a striped and a swift frostsaber and almost immediately used both items.

Summoning the swift one he laughed with glee as he started racing towards the teleportation zone.

This was SO awesome.

Now on to the next level.


	11. Chapter 11

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>The silver ball made almost no noise as it rolled across the desktop.<p>

Dumbledore caught gently as it fell off his side of the desk.

Raising two long fingers to eye level he summoned his magic and started looking at it with more then mortal eyes.

It definitively WAS portal magic, he could feel the activation spell as well as the power source in the mercury contained it. What was missing was a destination as well as a reintegration spell.

-'What is this Severus?'

-'The weapon used in the train.' The potion professor's voice was tense as he responded.

-'You mean this is what took Mr Potter and his comrades away?'

The raven haired man massaged his temples as he responded.

-'No Headmaster, you have to let go of this foolish hope.' His voice was wary as he continued. 'This is the weapon that KILLED Harry potter, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan.'

Putting it down with care the older man tried to use a soothing tone.

-'How can that be Severus, we both know that can't happen."

Snape exploded.

-'You think I want him to be dead?' He stood up abruptly, almost toppling his chair. 'You know why I've been so terrible to him, we both know exactly what is at stake and why I damned myself thus,' He started pacing. 'You better then most understand what will happen now that the one hope for the light is gone, Gods, what I will have to do if I want to survive.'

With a heavy sigh Dumbledore waved his hands.

-'Yes my friend I understand, now sit, let me get you something to calm you down.' As he made to stand Severus waved him down and opened the drinks cabinet.

As he poured two tumblers Albus spoke up.

-'What does it do?'

Not turning around he answered.

-'It turns the target into a form of energy that is easier to transport I gather then a portkey,' He grabbed both glasses and walked back to the chair. 'Theoretically it could be used as a substitute for both floo and portkey with impunity, being both faster and , again in theory, safer then both.'

-'But...?'

-'But they were designed with just that in mind, to make them work as I am sure you guessed you would need a destination, either a spell or targeting, and something to rematerialize on arrival,' He put the drink in front of the headmaster and sipped his. 'Both of which are missing from those little orbs.'

With a renewed twinkle in his eye the headmaster looked at him.

-'But that means that Mr Potter is still there, just in an energy form that can potentially be rematerialized no?'

Pinching the bridge of his nose Severus answered.

-'No Albus, the energy is naturally incoherent, it flies off every which way at what I understand is several feet per seconds, only if you had a working gate at hand would it stay coherent enough for the few seconds needed to rematerialize,' He took another sip from his drink. 'As we speak most of what constituted the only hope for the wizarding world is making it's way towards the distant stars.' He raised his glass to the heavens as if toasting the departed.

Both men looked at each other, leaving the unasked question hanging, what do we do now?


	12. Chapter 12

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>The fight had been going on for almost two minutes now.<p>

Obviously it had been a bad idea but he couldn't have helped himself for a flying mount and 5 free levels.

He threw another missile at him before using his mana Gem.

The giant T-Rex roared as the spells hit and retaliated by stomping him to the ground.

Using his legs and arms he flipped himself back up and quickly cast another missile before sending a flamestrike to the T-Rex's midsection almost 20ft in the air.

With a final roar the beast fell sideways and expired.

-'Mwahahaahah, I be awesome.'

He couldn't help but shout out loud as he took the loot and skinned the animal.

Summoning his tiger he ran back to the lip of the crater and started going back into Tanaris.

He had forgotten to get the flight path and now he was making a run back all the way across the desert and giant insects just to get the flight path.

He was till amazed at the sight in front of him almost every new zone he encountered. He had become eager to visit new places and gain levels, everything he had heard about Outland was nightmarish as well as beautiful and he couldn't wait to get there and get a flying mount.

He had been riding for a good five minutes when Gadgetzan came into view.

From this angle he could see how he had missed the alliance flight point, it was at exactly the right angle to miss it if you came in straight from thousand needles and carried on to Tanaris.

He quickly talked to the girl here before turning around and riding back to Tanaris.

Going to Gadgetzan it made sense to fly but as a mage he was faster just riding back, especially when he had the business with the pillars and the first one was right on the edge of the crater.

He let the various hostiles try to attack him as he rode the white tiger. He only had to stop once as a scorpion stunned him briefly. Turning around he quickly used his nova to freeze the animal in place and stepping back using the missiles and flamestrikes to finish it off.

Back on his tiger he arrived at the edge between the two zones and without a second thought he jumped off the edge of the crater.

The fog was thick enough that he couldn't see the ground as he plunged faster towards the hard ground.

He was maybe still a hundred yards in the air when he cast his Slow Fall spell.

His tiger disappeared and he slowed down to a gentle drop as he moved in the same direction towards the ground far below.

He hit the ground running and after only a brief pause he summoned his valiant steed and started toward the pillar at the edge of the crater.

At level 49 he was still low enough that he needed to skirt most of the monsters in this place.

Finding the tiny winding path he only stopped to mine the Thorium that seemed to be plentiful here.

This pillar was really the last one on his quest and after thinking at it briefly he cast the slow fall spell on himself again, summoned his mount and jumped off the cliff towards the quest giver to the north.

The ride was once again interrupted but this time it was a raptor who dismounted him.

The fight took much longer as the level difference began to tell.

He was about to try running away when his Missile critical-striked twice and the animal fell over with a cry.

He ran and blinked a few times as Raptor milled around and when he was safely out of aggro range he summoned his tiger and galloped all the way to the top of that tiny outpost and deep into the cave where for that gnome was hiding.

As he thought at him that the quest was completed he felt the surge that meant he had completed another level.

Level 50! Sweet. Another step closer. He accepted the return quest and stepped back just a little.  
>He pulled out his spellbook and started casting the teleportation spell to Ironforge.<p>

After just a few seconds he found himself in the Dwarven city. Funnily enough, he mused as he spoke to the mage trainer, this was the dwarf city but it had the highest ceilings of all the cities he had been to.

As he finished learning the spell he started running to the AH, almost on the other side of the city.

He had only been here about two weeks but he had made almost 1000 gold all counted with the auctions and various sells he had made.

Remembering the price of the flight training he kept it safely stored because he really really wanted to be able to do that as soon as he got to the Outlands.

It was a matter of minutes to sort all of his items, throw away the old water he had been using and summon the new sparkling water.

He quickly auctioned all the greens and material he had and started using his hearthstone.

Let's see how those raptors liked his new spells.


	13. Chapter 13

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>-'What is this Dumbledore?'<p>

The shout was accompanied with a paper thrown on his desk.

-'Good morning Amelia, may I offer you some tea?'

The head of the DMLE was a short slightly plump witch but her fury at this moment made her look more like an angry dragon then just a human being.

-'Listen to me very carefully Albus,' She put both hands on his desk on each side of the newspaper and lean forward. 'You are going to explain to me why this thing says that Harry potter is dead, why it goes on to say that nothing can now oppose the dark lord as the one to defeat him is finally dead by his hand.' She narrowed her eyes. 'And you might want to add why there are two obituaries for Messieurs Thomas and Finnigan.'

She did not flinch when the headmaster grabbed the paper between her hands and unfurled it.

When he gaped at the story about the circumstances of Mr Potter disappearance she leaned back and sat on one of the chairs in front of the older man.

She waited patiently as he read the full article and noticed his deep frown. She was ready to bet she knew exactly what part he was reading, the details of Mr Potter's death, everything from where it had happened to what had been used to do it, things that only a death eater in on the plan or the murderer herself could have known or someone from his Fried chicken club that had investigated the site could have deduced except for the name of the murderer casually thrown in by the reporter.

As he finished this article he turned to the obits and quickly skimmed both young men's paragraphs.

-'Well?'

He had obviously forgotten about her as he started slightly.

-'Oh, I am sorry Amelia, what was it you wanted to know again?'

-'Is he dead?' As he cringed she continued. 'Was he the one prophesied to kill Tom?'

Dumbledore stood up and walked to his drink cabinet.

-'Have you heard the prophecy then?'

-'Sherry please, Yes I had a transcript ordered from the department of mysteries today after reading this.'

-'He is dead,' The old man sighed deeply. 'A spy in Tom's rank showed me the method and after extensive testing I have to agree, he is dead Amelia.'

-'I know.' She paused for a second. 'I had the necromancy department confirm that he couldn't be reached though.'

Dumbledore dropped the glasses he had been carrying back at this.

-'What?'

-'I had the necromancy department try to raise his shade in case we might be able to do something with a possession Albus, wherever he is, it's not the afterlife.'

She smiled at the opened mouth expression on the headmaster's face.


	14. Chapter 14

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>-'Well you seem happier.'<p>

They were about halfway through Stratholme when Sylvann had explained that he was in fact the same player that he had dungeonned with under the name Kelinda.

-'I just got confirmation that my best friend was OK.' Knowing she was a girl did not help Harry when he heard the gruff tones coming from the human paladin.

-'What happened?'

-'It's a long story but basically he took off just as school ended and I haven't heard back since and the head... I mean one of our mutual friends confirmed that he was OK, he just couldn't be reached for the moment.'

-'Did he give you a reason for just taking off?' He tried to voice the concern he felt but trying to kill hordes of undead while nursing his mana was taking quite a bit out of his concentration.

-'Well no,' She paused while she rotated Holy light and Beacon of light on the tank. 'But he's a really responsible guy so I'm sure there's a perfectly,' They both turned to the action and started spamming AOE to kill all the single attacks that were spawning from the Crypt fiends. 'Reasonable excuse for is silence.'

-'I'm glad it all worked out in the end.' He blasted away with arcane missiles for a while. 'Plus I've been out of touch with my friends since I started playing so I HAVE to hope that they can be as forgiving as you're being.'

Both of them fell silent for a while as the tank brought in a wave. This had been an excellent run so far, Sylvann had been sticking to healing and despite his,..., her lack of experience the tank was good enough to moderate his pulls and there had been no wipes at all since they started. Nerub'enkan and the Baroness had been defeated and they still had a good 5 mins to spare to get to Baron Rivendare.

His latest splurge on blue gear at AH meant that his DPS had gone through the roof and he still found himself checking his mana bar when it was obviously unnecessary.

As the mobs finished dying under there coordinated onslaught they ran through to the Baron's zone, they only had a few minutes left but it was going to be more then plenty enough time to finish him off.

-'Ok, mana up everyone.'

The tank was a human warrior and despite his short sentences he was one of the most polite players Harry had encountered. He tried to actually say please and thank you when not in battle, he punctuated his sentences and had taken the time to hammer out an MO before they had even fought the first mob.

As they all sat down and Harry distributed the water to mana players he kept detailing the weaknesses and strengths of Baron Rivendare as well as the most effective to kill him with their current group.

It didn't surprise The-Boy-Who-Lived that his role was supposed to be "Stay back and spam Pyroblast, Fireball, Fireball, Fireball and then Fireblast.".

-'Is everyone good?'

-'Yup'

-'Yup'

-'I'm good'

-'Good to go.'

-'Then let's go!'

As the tank ran Harry started casting. He was going to pull the aggro for a second but this guy was good enough with taunts to get it right back.

After a few crowded seconds of fighting running around and running back from push backs and interrupts there came the intense moment where you could see your health drop down but of course the tank got priority so while Sylvann was busy healing him Harry popped one of the potions in his backpack. It wasn't necessary of course but this WAS the boss fight for this dungeon and a few extra seconds of leeway for the healer could mean winning.

He kept casting. Only on his 4 rotation did he decided to burn the mana gem he had created.

It was a cool looking gem but the taste of it's magic was different from anything he had touched before. It was more powerful then the waters he drank and yet softer then the potions he used.

He could see the life draining out of the baron as he desperately fought them taunting the destruction of the city.

It was always the last 1000 hit points that made the blood flow, just as the monster he was fighting gave it's all or worse, ran towards its mates to get some reinforcements.

All of a sudden it was over.

With a last roar the baron shuddered and died.

The flash of yellow light took him by surprise.

-'Grats on 60!'

-'Gratz.'

-'WTG'

-'Hey I'm Dead!'

They all turned to the rogue. Or rather the rogue's corpse laying behind the monster's carcass.

-'ROFL'

-'HAHAHAHAHAAH'

-'What happened?'

Harry turned to the door where the ghost would come through in a minute.

-'Probably some DOT that just finished him off, it happens.'

-'Should I resurrect him?'

-'Naa don't bother, the dungeon's over I might as well tel. back, save your mana.'

-'Well, thanks for the run guys.'

-'Yup good run thanks guys'

-'cya'

-'Bye.'

Everyone disappeared in ones from the group.

When only the two of them remained he spoke up again.

-'I'm going back to Ironforge for training and AH, I'll open a portal for you if you wanna come.'

Sylvann turned to him before speaking up.

-'Thanks but my mom just called me so I gotta log.'

He sat down in the middle of the field they had reappeared in.

-'At the speed your leveling you'll be 70 by the next time I log, I think I have a character that's that level, so I'll see you in Outlands?'

He started casting his portal as he spoke.

-'You got it, just friend me whenever and tell me it's you I'll make sure and accept.'

The /hug was a bit of a surprise but he felt perfectly comfortable blowing her a kiss as she finally disappeared from the world.

Making friends certainly was fun. Too bad no one could play with him all the time.


	15. Chapter 15

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>The tall figured apparated outside of the Longbottom residence.<p>

The headmaster had forgone his most outlandish colored robes for a somber muggle suit.

He walked calmly up the path leading to the manor's entrance and mused on the last time he had been here.

He sincerely hoped that this visit would be a happier one.

Standing on the porch he used the knocker to thump out three knocks on the thick oak door.

He was above such things as fidgeting as he waited but his plan had such a daring that he could not help the the shuffling of his feet.

-'Yes?' The door opened enough to show the face of the Longbottom lady. 'Oh Good morning Supreme Mugwump and what can I help you with?'

Smiling the headmaster bowed his head.

-'Good morning Lady Longbottom, I am actually here to see Mr. Longbottom,' He indicated the briefcase in his hand. 'It is regarding the matters that transpired on the hogwart's express this june.'

He could see the expression harden on the older lady standing in front of him.

-'Very well Mr Dumbledore,' She opened the door. 'Do come in, I will see if Mr Longbottom can be disturbed.'

Albus nodded amiably at this and sat down on the available couch.

He knew that what he was going to ask of the boy was neither strenuous nor dangerous, but he understood the misgivings that Augusta had. After all, the last time he was here both her child and his bride had been taken away from her because of his visit.

He had been waiting for maybe two full minutes when the door opened and Neville stepped in.

The boy had grown up yes but his association with Mr Potter had matured him too.

He stood straighter and he looked him in the eye as he spoke.

-'Good morning Headmaster, My Grandmother tells me you have something to ask of me.'

-'Good morning Neville. Yes,' He opened his briefcase on the small coffee table in front of him. 'I take it you have heard the news?'

-'That Harry isn't dead?' He looked questioningly at the content of the briefcase. '

-'Yes Mr Longbottom,' He nodded at the vials lined carefully in the black foam. 'It seems that although Mr Potter's body is definitely destroyed his soul has not passed on.' He took one of the vials out of the briefcase and handed it over.

-'What is this?' The boy gently shook the vial and watched as the silver liquid glouped up and down rather then slosh.

-'This is actually a memory.' He pointed at the 20 or so vials. Only 5 or so of them were still empty. 'We have found out that Mr Potter has not passed on but we are utterly unable to find his soul,' He took the vial back and reverentially put it back with the others. 'But it seems that there are a number of rituals that allow one to find or attract a wayward soul,' he took an empty vial and opened it. 'And if we can store it then once we rematerialize his body we can revive Mr Potter.'

He smiled as he saw the hope bloom in the young man's eyes.

-'The main ingredient for this ritual is actually pretty innocuous,' He took out his wand and laid it next to the open vial. 'It is memories of the missing person.'

-'Memories sir?' Neville looked from the open vial to the full ones resting in the briefcase.

-'Yes Mr Longbottom, specifically intense memories of Mr Potter. From what has been explained to me the memories are a sort of mirror of the memories that are inside Mr Potter's mind and the sympathetic magic attracts them to each other.' As the boy nodded he continued. 'Evidently, the more memories we have the better chance we will have of drawing it back to us so I have come here to ask you if you would donate a memory to this.'

-'Will I forget it once I do?' Neville frowned.

-'Not exactly,' Albus gestured with his hand. 'The memory will still be there but some of the emotional charge associated with it will be diminished. You will still remember the event but it will feel like it happened to someone else.' He stared intently into the young man's eyes trying to convey the importance of this ritual.

-'Of course I'll do it Sir,' He squared his shoulders. 'He is my friend after all. Now what do I need to do?'

-'Very well. The first thing I need you to do is recall a moment in your life where you had contact with Mr Potter. It need not be verbal but it seems to help when people try to do this to remember a conversation you had. It need not be a conversation where you were the only ones present but it needs to be a moment where both of you spoke or interacted.' He stopped as he saw the young man stared up and to the right.

-'OK, I have it.' He stared directly at the headmaster.

-'Good, I am going to put my wand against your temple and pull.' He picked up his wand and extended it. 'From the moment it touches you I want you to go through that moment in your head over and over, trying to recall as many details as possible, just keep going through until I tell you.'

As the young man nodded he put his wand lightly against the side of Neville's head.

Watching for the intense concentration on the young man's face he muttered the incantation and slowly started pulling.

The thick silver strand started coming out of his head. It was obviously a good memory as he kept pulling until it was almost a foot from the boy's head.

When the strand cut off with a soft plop he spoke up.

-'This is good Mr Longbottom, you can stop now.'

He grabbed the vial on the table and slowly lowered the strand of memory into it.

-'Will that be helpful sir?' The boy seemed quite anxious as he asked this.

Showing the vial filled to the brim he answered.

-'Neville my boy, this is the best memory I have retrieved yet, I am sure that this will be of immense help during the ritual.'

As the boy broke into a grin he smiled in return.

-'Now with your permission I will finish visiting all of Mr Potter's friends.'

Neville nodded as he stood up.

-'Of course sir, I wish you luck in your endeavour,' He opened the door to let the headmaster through. 'And please, if you need anything else from me do not hesitate to ask.'

-'Thank you again Mr Longbottom, I will make sure and let you know the results of the ritual.'


	16. Chapter 16

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>It had been a week now.<p>

The headmaster had traveled to all the people he knew had at least talked to Harry Potter and convinced them to give a memory to this ritual.

The wizarding world needed the boy and since he had not moved on it was obvious the boy needed to come back.

This was a ritual best done by noon light.

He stood in the courtyard of 12 Grimmauld Pl.

Around him were 4 of the most powerful witches and wizards whose loyalty he commanded.

They all wore the white robes that were required by this ritual.

Around them were the stones that had been carved out of marble, granite and one molded out of clay.

Between the stones and them was a circle drawn in chalk. It was made of two concentric circles and in between them were five smaller circles containing one of each element.

At a nod from him Severus Snape turned to the sapling that stood in the circle behind him and started chanting.

For a full minute he spoke the Babylonian words and kept his hands on the tree.

As he finished Filius turned to the unsmeleted ore behind him and followed suit, chanting the guttural words with practiced ease.

Albus looked to McGonagal as she turned around. She placed her hands in the basin of ice water and with a melodious voice picked up the chant.

The headmaster admired the one each of the three participant's voice seemed to weave into one another to come out as a vibration that touched the very core of his being.

To his right Nymphadora turned to the roaring fire behind her. He could see her trying to suppress a smile as she thrust both hands into the fire. Her voice was higher pitched then any of the other participants but she managed to get perfectly in time with the others.

On cue the older man turned to the empty circle behind him and thrust his hands in.

The wind immediately played across his hands.

There chanting reached a heavy crescendo and there very bones vibrated in unison.

Each participant had 4 or 5 vials full of memories in there sights when the ritual took a hold of those and shattered them.

The glass only flew out a few feet but the silver threads of memory flew to the center of the circle.

Albus could not turn around to follow them with his eyes, this would interrupt the careful ritual. He knew that now they would be assembling above the center of the circle.

The memories were even now coalescing into a crude effigy of Mr. Potter. The thoughts that included him so vividly were trying to draw him sympathetically in.

He heard the soft rustle of grass as the memory golem touched down.

With a last word incanted he turned around.

He heard the gasps of surprise from the other participants as they looked at the thing in the circle.

It was Harry Potter. The memories obviously had been vivid enough to create this realistic image o the young man.

They all started chanting the second part of the ritual together.

The phantom turned to each person in turn and looked deep into their eyes.

Albus knew that this was to add energy to the memories that each person had given.

He looked deep into it's eyes when it turned to him and pushed out the thoughts of the young boy as he remembered him.

He felt his magic push the memories and the rising power as the image of the Harry pulled at the soul of the recently departed.

When the shade finished looking at each participant in turn it looked up.

To Albus' surprise it turned to the west, towards young Nymphadora.

As they all finished the chant the memories face took on a determined look and with a loud bang, vanished.

* * *

><p>An hour later all the participants were sitting around the table in the dining room.<p>

-'What went wrong Albus?' McGonagal looked defeated as she asked the question on everyone's mind.

-'I do not know Minerva,' He looked down at the details of the rituals on the table. 'The phantom was supposed to draw the spirit back to it and turn into a vessel to store his soul.'

-'Headmaster,' Snape tugged one of he pages out. 'Look at this part of the ritual.' He pointed to the details of the transfiguration of the memories. 'It looks like despite the added energy this construct essentially weighs the same as the memories it was created from.'

-'Which was pretty much nothing.' Filius chimed in.

-'Exactly, so,' He pointed to the retrieval spell. 'Since the construct serves as an anchor for the soul as it is being drawn to it,...'

-'If he was anchored to something that weighed more then the memories it would draw it to him rather then the other way around.' Finished Ms. Tonks.

-'I've never heard of a soul being anchored to anything,' Minerva asked. 'What could possibly do that?'

All noises stopped as Dumbledore looked at her in shock.

Everyone was about to ask him what could have scared him this badly when he turned to Snape.

Both men looked at each other for a second before Severus nodded slowly.

The headmaster fell back into his chair his face pale.

-'What is it Headmaster?' Nymphadora asked frightfully.

After a minute trying to compose himself the older man looked sat her and answered.

-'I think, and Professor Snape agrees,' the raven haired man nodded. 'That Harry's soul was bound to an object by Voldemort in order to prolong his life.'

He bowed his head in defeat as all the people around him gasped in horror.


	17. Chapter 17

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>The Outlands had been the most fun he had ever had.<p>

Flying on a mount was awesome to a degree hard to describe.

Buckbeak had been great in the real world but the gryphons here were something else. Even hovering they showed grace and poise.

He had barely finished the quests from Mr Nesingwary when He decided that level 68 was quite high enough a level to venture into Northrend.

The first thing that had struck him as he stepped off the boat was the stark beauty of the landscape.

As far as the eye could see it was a world of bare grass and thick wooly animals.

The first few quests had been hard. He realised now that there was a reason that Outlands gave you challenging quests up to level 72.

He had died more then a couple of times.

It was not the games fault, it was simply that the aggro ranges on monsters tended to overlap a little when you were two level under par.

He had just finished the quest to learn Teleport: Dalaran and he opened his spellbook as soon as it glowed.

The spell was like all the other teleport spells, simply it required to be about 50 levels above the other ones.

The light engulfed him for the merest fraction of a second and he found himself standing in a purple room.

He turned to the stairs behind him and the chatter that was the city broke over him.

There were a number of channels used at all times but here where all the level 80's gathered it was louder even then usual.

The stairs in front of him led to a small archway that opened onto a square with a fountain in the middle.

As he stepped out a Tauren on top of a wholly mammoth raced past him.

It was all he could do not to cry out in amazement.

There were people from every realms running around here. And the animals they rode were each more colorful then the last. Bright green and purple ostriches crossed paths with Tigers and wolves of every color. He even saw a dwarf riding what looked like an old school chopper.

-'This is so awesome!.'

If he could have he would have stayed there open mouthed at the people walking all around.

The bright pieces of armor and exotic mounts but he had come here with a purpose.

He mounted his tiger and started running to the flight point.

It was only a couple of twists and turns from the teleportation zone but he was passed with what looked like a hundred other players all of them speaking to each other on the main channels.

He walked through the arches and blinked forward almost instantly as his tiger disappeared from under him.

There were quite a few people milling about on this platform too but the flight trainer and his giant butterfly mount were hard to miss.

As he stood in front of him he thought at him.

The dialog for flight training opened up. He smiled when he saw the two items in front of him.

The smile faltered when he realised that first the one that was green was priced at 5000 pieces of gold.

This represented pretty much everything he had. Second that there was one that was still red.

Cold weather flying was only available at level 77.

-'Arrrrrggggh.'

He had wanted to start flying right away!.

Drat!

He mused for a bit about waiting until he had the money for both and was level 70 before buying the skill but this would be stupid. He had the 5000 gold right now, he might as well go for it.

The light signifying a new skill flashed around him as the achievement popped in front of him.

Now all he needed to do was get out of the city.

He started using his hearthstone.

The light started surrounded him when it happened.

It felt like a spike of fire had been thrust through his brain.

At first he felt like a immense force was pulling him by his head and he was ready to feel his neck rip off when it stopped pulling and the memories started.

First it was a discussion he had with Professor McGonagal.

Then Neville came up when they had talked after the sorcerer's stone.

They started arriving faster and faster.

Hermione, Ron and Ginny came next.

Then as the flood increased yet again they blurred together.

As the final word he had exchanged in those memories came up he popped up in Valliance Keep.

He was lying on the cold stone as he tried to process the pain flooding through his entire body.

Even dying in this realm had never felt this harsh.

He did not cry out in pain as more suffering poured from his head to the tip of his toes but only because his throat muscles were protesting the slightest movement.

It must have been an hour he lay there trying to process the intense memories.

He tried to move gingerly and found that all the pain was gone.

Whatever this body was made of it had no memories for injuries and anything done to it righted itself after the briefest time.

He was gingerly testing his legs when he realised what this had felt like.

It was very very close to what he had felt when he was under mental attack by Voldemort.

He worried about what powerful emotions Tom must have felt to be able to send such a powerful blast after him.

As he ran towards the flight master he hoped that his friends were all right back in the real world.

It was only on flight to Dragonblight that he realised that for the first time in two months he felt genuine worry.


	18. Chapter 18

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>Grimmauld place had finally been cleaned up.<p>

The walls had been scourged of the remnants of the years and the last pixie had been evacuated via the back garden.

Hermione was surprised to find a great big hole where the portrait of Ms. Black used to be.

Remus followed her gaze.

-'After they both died the whole estate fell to me.' He looked down at the memory. 'The first time she called Harry a half blood I took an axe to her,' He gestured to the broom closet at the end of the hall. 'It turns out her portrait was all manners of indestructible but the wall wasn't.'

The mention of Harry and Sirius' double disappearance, both without leaving a body, almost brought her out in tears again. She felt the potion work its magic on the turmoil of anguish and soothe it down.

-'Tonks and I burned it outside right after that.' A sinister grinned appeared on his face. 'She stopped screaming.' He paused as he looked up in fond recollection. 'Eventually.'

-'Hermione, Where should we put your stuff?' Her father asked as he walked through the door with their luggage.

-'Third floor Mr Granger, hers is the first on the left and yours is right across the hall.' Ron indicated as he pointed to the stairs. 'Do you want some help with those?'

Dan Granger smiled as he put one of the suitcases on the floor.

-'Yes, if you don't mind, could you take that one?'

-'Of course Mr Granger.' The redheaded boy picked up the case and started up the stairs right behind the older man.

-'Could someone show me where the restrooms are?' Ms Granger put her coat on the stand behind the door.

-'Follow us Ms Granger, it's on the second floor.' Ginny smiled as she picked up the last suitcase and followed her brother up the stairs.

Left by themselves Remus and Hermione stood in uncomfortable silence.

Finally Hermione spoke up.

-'Did the headmaster finally decide to let everyone know what went wrong with the ritual?' She looked straight into the older man's eyes.

-'No. He still thinks it's too big of a secret to let anyone else know.'

-'He thinks something anchored Harry's soul right?'

Remus stared open mouthed.

-'I may act irrationally sometimes Professor Lupin but I am good at inductive reasoning.' She walked into the living room and sat down. 'I figured that the spell they were going to use was to call his soul back from wherever it was so it was only logical to think,' It was a demonstration of her mental state that she did not remark anything when Winky set a glass of water by her elbow. 'That he was trying to call back his soul to this place.'

She looked at Remus for any sign that she had been right.

The Werewolf had heard most of it from Dumbledore but he was still curious to see where the young woman would bring this.

-'From there it's only a short leap to the fact that even though Harry's body is destroyed his soul hasn't moved on.' She stopped at the open mouthed expression on her former professor.

-'What makes you think that last part?'

-'They didn't try for Dean and Seamus.'

Remus sat back in his sofa. He was wondering where this was ultimately going.

-'If they didn't try for them that means that those two DID pass on and they could use necromancy to get some answers from them.' She took a deep gulp of the water. 'But the ritual failed and this is where, I think the Headmaster and Professor Snape are wrong.'

Lupin made a gesture for her to go on.

-'I think they think that Voldemort anchored his soul using souls of other people he killed and that's why we can't kill him,' She stopped for a second. 'Or at least not until we destroy all the anchors.'

-'They haven't give us this level of detail yes but you ARE essentially right.' He couldn't keep a bit of awe in his voice at the amount of correct data she had induced from almost no starting information.

-'I think whatever destroyed his body interacted badly with something else and his soul formed a natural anchor.' She looked up at the ceiling trying to voice the half formed thought. 'An anchor that weighs more then a pack of memories so when the ritual tried to pull him to it it ended up going to him.'

-'Go on.'

-'Obviously he never used all the rituals that Voldemort used to make himself immortal so it doesn't work the same and we might not be able to make him a new body,' She shuddered. 'Certainly not with the method he used last year, But maybe whatever the headmaster was going to use could work, all we have to do is find his soul.'

Remus stared down thoughtfully.

-'I need to talk to the headmaster, I think you ARE right and his theory is incorrect.' He stood up. 'Your room is the same as last year, I added an electrical outlet by the desk too.' At her surprised expression he continued. 'Your father told me about your cousin's computer, I think you can even get one of the neighbors access point from your room.' He smiled at the delighted look on her face. 'Now go upstairs, I have some calls to make.'


	19. Chapter 19

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>Sairius has earned the achievement [The Right Stuff]!<p>

Harry had barely gotten level 77.

His first thing as soon as he got out of the fight was to teleport to Dalaran and get this.

He had just spent 6000 gold pieces to buy both cold weather flying and the Artisan riding skill.

With a lot of use of the Auction House and daily questing he had been able to afford both skills almost two days ago but it was better to just get both at the same time.

The flight platform in Dalaran was always crowded with helicopters, dragons, wyverns and other assorted types.

Today it was going to see one more thing.

Harry summoned his tiger and started running towards the city.

It was only a minute of riding to get to the relatively empty bank.

He dismounted automatically when he rode in and smoothly blinked to the smiling cashier.

After thinking at him he started opening his bags one by one.

It was in the fourth one that he found what he was looking for.

The reins of the red drake.

Putting them in his backpack he turned around and blinked to the entrance again.

Jumping back on the white tiger he ran back to the flight point.

Once again he dismounted in the small corridor and ran to the open platform that was the only place one could ride out of Dalaran on a flying monture.

Standing still he opened his back pack and started using the reins in his pack.

It took only a few seconds for the reins to do their magic and the spirals of yellow sparks spun around him.

With a huge grin he opened his spellbook and checked his mount page.

There it was crouched ready to pounce.

With a thought he started calling it into being. The summoning was just a couple of seconds but the result was simply magnificent.

He found himself sitting right in front of the shoulders of a red dragon.

It was about twice as tall as him and maybe for times longer then he was tall.

He knew the beast couldn't breath fire but apart from that it was amazing.

With a though he sent it soaring up.

There was no wind to distract from the pure joy of flying up here.

He started spiraling down almost to the top of the crystal trees that grew below the floating city shouting with laughter all the way down.

This was amazing.

This thing was almost three times faster then his gryphons and speaking of that, now that he had the artisan skill it might be a thought to stop by the vendor in Dalaran and pick up all the upper tier flying mounts for the alliance.

Angling upwards he turned towards Sholazar. He still had a number of quests there and it was going to cost him quite a bit of money to get all those mounts.


	20. Chapter 20

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>-'Hey Hermione what are you up to?'<p>

Ginny walked into the room that Hermione had commandeered.

-'Playing that computer game my cousin lent me.'

-'Oh right, yes, Ron said something about that.' She leaned forward. 'Can I see?'

-'Sure,' She tried to lean back so Ginny could see. 'Right now I'm playing the level 20 that I started when they lent it to me.' She paused as another fight started.

-'It looks pretty cool, I imagine those guys must pretty good after casting the spells all the time.'

-'Yeah, if it was a real person after they reached level 80 they must have cast those spells so many times it's second nature to them.'

-'And what's that down there?' She pointed to the running commentary in blue.

-'Oh, that's my weapon mastery, the more I use each weapon the better I get at it.'

-'Just like the spells?' Ginny leaned back.

-'Exactly except that depending on your class you can't learn all the weapons.'

-'And what are you playing?'

-'She's a druid.' She used the shapeshifting to turn to a bear. 'I only get a few weapons but this is the kind of character that doesn't really need it.'

-'Is it like an animagus?' Ginny frowned at the strange looking bear on the screen.

-'Exactly except that this one has 9 or 10 different forms when you get to 80.' She demonstrated by switching to the form of what looked like a blue mountain lion.

-'That would be awesome,' She stared into the distance. 'Being an animagus and having multiple forms on top of that!'

-'Yes, especially those,' On screen the bear turned into a lithe young girl and started casting spells. 'Bear to fight hand to hand, cat to sneak around, cheetah to run everywhere, lion seal to go anywhere underwater and later on you can change into different types of birds.'

-'That would be so cool.' Ginny leaned forward again. To see where Hermione was going. 'So what are you supposed to do now?'

-'Oh, this guy is lost in one of the caves south of here. There's a bunch of bears at the entrance so I'm supposed to get pelts from those tigers,' She pointed to a gray and blue tiger that she was fighting on screen. 'And then the the guy who sent me on this quest will make a cloak out of this so his friend can escape.'

-'How many more pelts do you need?'

-'2 but you'd think I was looking for wood from the true cross from how often those guys actually drop the things.'

Ginny stared for a second as the corpse disappeared.

-'Do they always go away like that?'

-'Mmmh? Oh no, I learned to skin animals so I skinned it.' Hermione opened her bags to rearrange the drops.

-'Sounds a little gruesome.' Ginny wrinkled her nose at the thought.

-'Naa, it sounds like it when you say it like that but all it really means is that get extra things when I kill a beast and then later on I can make better armor out of it.' She pointed to the light leather in her pack. 'It's not like they show you the whole process with the brain and everything.'

-'I think I know enough about this for my own comfort.'

Hermione smiled at the comment.

-'Fair enough.'

-'So what happens at higher levels? Do you just do that non stop?'

-'Oh no, here I'll show you.' Hermione logged off the character she was playing. 'My cousin left me a level 78 so that I could play the higher levels.' She clicked on the Shaman showing on the screen and logged in. 'It's mostly dungeons but there are some really cool perks to being so high level.'

The Shaman popped on screen astride a Hyppogryph. He was hovering over what looked like a frozen waste.

Ginny stared as she saw tiny dots moving at the bottom of the valley.

-'What are those?'

-'There undeads, mostly skeletons and ghouls.' She started gliding towards a flying ship high above the valley.

-'You mean inferis?' Ginny could not disguise the horror in her voice.

-'Uh? Yeah I guess that's what you would call them in the wizarding world.' Hermione landed on the flying vessel and walked to the gnome below deck while swiftly shapeshifting to the wolf form.

-'Aren't you horrified by this?' Ginny was actually edging back from the screen.

-'You don't understand Ginny, I was raised by muggles, to me those are just monsters, I can't feel the full horror that someone like you who lived with magic all her life feels.' She pointed at the screen. 'To you those are a very real possibility in every conflict with a dark wizard, to me those are crumple horn snorckacks.'

She could see the confusion on the younger girls face as she tried to equate her feelings for the mythical creatures that her friend always talked about with the horrible creatures that made up so much of the horror tales that she heard as she grew up.

-'Plus most of the quests in this game consist in killing them in large amounts so that always makes it better.'

A slight chime from her computer brought her attention back to the screen.

She started typing with a large smile.

-'What happened?' Ginny started reading over her shoulder.

-'It's my friend Sairius, he dinged 77 earlier today and he's asking if I want to go do a dungeon with him since I'm just one level above him.'

-'Would you? Please?'

-'Sure.' Hermione typed the reply.

It was just a few seconds before an group invite popped up on screen.

She accepted and started typing in the blue conversation that appeared.

-'I'm explaining to him that I'm showing you the game so he had better entertain you.'

Ginny laughed at this.

She had barely finished typing when a new pop up appeared.

-'That's the dungeon invite, you'll like this one it's pretty much full of blue giants from beginning to end.'

The loading screen appeared briefly before she reappeared in a hall filled with people.

-'Sairius is the blue one over here.' She pointed to the black haired man on screen.

-'He's a mage, mostly a lot of damage from as far away as possible.'

-'And you?'

-'I heal mostly, this character is one of those versatile ones, I created totems and I used them to heal.'

-'Ok, What do the others do?'

Hermione pointed to the dwarf in dower looking armor.

-'This guy is our tank, his job is to make all the enemies we fight angry at him and only him.' She pointed to the two elves. 'Those are hunters, they send their pet in to fight for them and they attack with long range, usually crossbow or gun.' She started typing. 'Okay, let's get this show on the road!'


	21. Chapter 21

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>Halls of reflection(heroic).<p>

The last two weeks had been spent raiding and doing battle grounds just to be able to get to this.

There was a gear requirement to even queue up for this and when he had dinged 80 he could almost hear the laughter from the game when he tried to select this instance.

He had done the prequels to this just yesterday and he had been warned by so many people about both the difficulty and the exact strategy to survive what was essentially a long series of waves of mobs.

The drops were still pretty fantastic but it was hard to beat raiding and pvp gear.

He had finally purchased the last of his sanctified set an hour ago and immediately queue up for this dungeon.

The hall where he reappeared was a drab and gray place. The only patches of color were the 4 people that appeared around him. A human priest and a human warrior immediately stepped two steps forward and turned around. It took another second for the rogue elf and the hunter dwarf to do the same.

He took a step to the left before speaking.

-'Hey everyone.'

-'Hey.'

-'Hey.'

-'Yo.'

-'Hey everyone, Hey Sairius, it's me Kelinda.' Said Breena. the rogue.

He smiled at this.

-'Hey Kelinda, nice rogue, fully decked I see, way to go.'

-'Yup this is my Arena character but I felt like dungeoning a little this morning.'

-'This morning?' The priestess asked.

-'Oh yeah, I'm in the UK so it's morning here.'

-'London?' The dwarf chimed in.

-'Yup.'

-'Lucky you, I'm in Ohio.' The warrior chimed in.

-'I'm in California.'

-'I'm in Washington state.' The hunter joined in.

-'Nice to meet you all. Shall we go?'

-Wait let me do buffs.'

-'Can I get some water?' The priestess turned to him.

-'Here you go.' he thought at her as he traded the stacks of water.

The buffs took a surprisingly long time. Between his and the priestesses they only had 5 but it was still a good minute before they were done.

-'Everyone knows the drill here?'

-'Yeah, stay behind the pillar.'

-'Out of LOS.'

-'Yes I did it twice already.'

-'Great, let's go then.' the warrior started towards the main room.

Frostmourne hung in the glacial air in the middle of the huge room.

The pedestal was only a few feet above ground level but the sheer size of the weapon made Harry dread the encounter with it's master.

As he turned to look for the monsters Jaina appeared. She walked up to the pedestal looking like just another player.

The first words out of her mouth had him and and Breena laughing.

-'Do not touch the dreaded blade as it would suck out your soul.'

And of course this was just the queue every other player that wasn't laughing took to jump onto the pedestal and try to touch the blade.

As Uther and Jaina spoke of the king the human warrior gave the brief on the fight ahead.

-'Ok, here's how it goes,' Niark pointed to the far wall. 'they come in wave from the alcoves and do dps at a dist. So everyone needs to go out of LOS and pound the mages.'

-'Ok.'

-'Gotcha.'

-'Ok.'

-'At wave 5 Falric comes out and he debuffs like there's no tomm. So mage you better get that dispel on quick cast.'

-'NP.' Harry nodded as he opened his spell book to the relevant page.

-'Then 5 more waves and Marwyn.'

-'That's where we wiped last time.'

-'Right, he does those ground thing that increase shadow dam. And then he hits the tank usually with a 4k dot on 12 that if you dispel it hits everyone in the group.

-'So no dispel then?' It was Breena who spoke up.

-'Actually yes but only if everyone can take at least 4k right there.'

Both he and the priest nodded.

-'Once we get this guy it's looting the corpses ok?'

-'NP.'

-'Yup.'

-'Just make sure you don't go to the next zone until I tell you ok?'

-'Are we ready then?' Harry nodded at the imposing figure in dark blue armor that had just stepped up to the floating blade.

The fight itself was on the upper tier of anything Harry had ever been in before.

Those were fighter that knew what they were doing on both sides. The phantom fighters knew exactly when their hits would stop the most powerful spells and when to turn back to the warrior on their side.

Even with the protection of line of sight it was a challenge to destroy mages who cast spells as hard as he did if not harder. Harry's advantage lay in the fact that he had those talents. They enabled him to cast faster and not get interrupted as much. More then a few times his spell hit his target as the phantom was barely finishing his casting.

The riflemen had some quite strong attacks and their rate of fire was superior to the mages.

It seemed to him that their only saving grace against them was that they had no LOS and could only run to them and start meleeing.

The first time he had seen a mercenary was when it had turned up right behind their priest and stabbed it in the back. Harry had actually been shocked to see the sheer drop in their priests life bar. He was comforted in the fact there seemed to be only one per wave and they could only do the disappearing act once a fight.

Harry was evoking to recoup both health and mana when Falric stepped out of the far alcove.

It was obviously a warrior almost twice the size of anyone of them.

The translucent shape of his spiked armor simply accentuated the air of menace that he exuded.

Stepping out of their cover Niark charged in a blink to the monster and tried to stun him in place.

This was the cue for everyone to bring in their 2 cents of destruction. As he started casting he saw Breena disappear from sight to his right and make her way to the right of the monster.

The first fear effect took him by surprise as he started fleeing. This was an artificial fear and he had to watch himself as an spectator in his own body running first away from then to the left.

He was comforted by the fact that the warrior had already shaken the effect ad was charging once again.

The fight itself was surprisingly long even when considering that they spend quite a bit of their time running away rather then fighting.

When finally the last sliver of health dropped off he could not stop himself from exulting.

-'Booya!'

-'LOL.'

-'ROFL.'

-'HAHA, yeah good job everyone, just don't relax yet, the other 5 waves are just going to get bigger.'

-'Water and food everyone.'

It only took about 30 seconds for most food and drinks to be consumed and with the juiced things that his mage powers had to offer it only took everyone about 10 secs of sitting down to be back to full health and mana.

Which it turned out was a good thing as Jaina on top of the pedestal called out for the next wave.

It turned out that this was exactly the same thing, 5 waves of 5 phantoms. Same powers, same strengths and powers.

It only took about 3 or 4 minutes to get rid of this set and then there was Marwyn.

Marwyn started in by attacking the priest. The damage he caused with his obliterate was actually scary to see on the frail human. Harry was thanking his luck that he had not tried this on him. He was after all just as squishy as him. He was still casting when the first shadow well opened at his feet.

Jumping back he let fly with two DOT's before standing and casting once again.

Niark's health clicked down all of a sudden and three seconds later it once again clicked the same amount. He was reaching for his dispel magic when he remembered the admonition at the beginning of the fight.

With trepidation he continued casting an arcane barrage and kept an eye on the dwindling life bar.

A sigh of relief actually escaped when the first heal from the priest brought the bar almost to full.

It was still a strange thing to trust other people in tight corners like this, he was too used to having to do everything on his own.

It was at least two full minutes before the huge life bar of the monster before them finally dropped to an acceptable low and finally he dropped to his knees and died.

This time it was Breena who cheered.

-'Yeah, we rock!'

-'That we do dear,' Sylvan, the priest, acknowledged with a nod. 'Ok, feel free to loot now people.'

His vision was actually obscured by all the purple, blue and green artifacts that requested his attention.

Having only access to cloth allowed him to select greed for almost everything as soon as he saw the material. The gold however kept flowing in.

-'Ok, next is really the last part of the dungeon.' Niark chimed in.

-'Sweet, almost done then?'

-'LOL.' Sylvan laughed.

-'Actually no,' Niark shook his head. 'We go in and Jaina freezes the king in place.'

-'Then he breaks out and we have to run like hell away from him.'

-'Yup and what's worse is we get 5 blocks of ice that block our way in turn and we have to kill the waves of mobs before we can break the ice.'

-'Which isn't that bad compared to the ones we've just done but here's the kicker,' Niark sat down to eat. 'Arthas is following us at walking pace and he's got this death aura which hits you for 4 or 5k a second.'

-'So we have only a minute or so for each wave.'

-'Rebuffs and popo ready for everyone then?' Harry chimed in.

-'Pretty much cuz if you die the changes of resurrecting you are slim to none.' Sylvan added.

-'Ok.' Breena was sitting with her own food near the corridor to the rest of the instance.

-'Oh BTW, there are a couple of mobs between us and Jaina so don't just run straight forward ok?'

-'OK.'

-'Yup.'

The corridor that had opened was just as bleak as the rest of the fortress but at least now the giant skeleton that stood in the middle of the corridor was not even a little scary.

It was Breena who gave the coup de grace this time and they swiftly continued up to the place where there guide was engaged in single combat against Arthas.

-'We don't have to fight him but the faster he gets low health the faster we can move on.'

-'Gotcha.'

-'Ok.'

-'Let's do this!' Breena stated as she swiftly stabbed the monster of a man in the back.

It was only a few seconds of casting spells before Jaina screamed at them to get out.

The run itself was not bad. With his blink he was quite capable of staying in step with their guide.

He was still passed by Breena sprinting by him as the first ice block fell.

The wave of mobs was mostly trash with a few of the multi-limbed monstrosities and those Frankenstein doctors following.

Once again Niark was the one taking care of most of them with Harry using AOE's to clear the trash.

The first wave finished with the Lich King still a considerable distance away and as Jaina destroyed the block they simply ran to the next one.

It caught Harry by surprise when he realized that this wave had been sent from where Arthas stood and was moving barely faster then the dread undead.

They all had to move back and start attacking them much closer then was comfortable.

The cost in mana of all those area spells as well as the instant cast one he was using to get the stragglers was starting to take it's toll.

As they arrived at the third barrier he stood against it and started evoking once again. The glyph for this spell was one of the best investments he had made. It meant that even in the middle of the fight he had one more heal then normal and it gave him full mana.

Refreshed he used his barrage to finish off the two pests still alive and turned to run as the barrier fell.

The fourth barrier seemed to be the most difficult. Arthas was slowly gaining ground and Sylvan was actually getting close to running out of mana. Running forward Harry used his frost nova to stick the corpses to the ground and give him a chance to recuperate a little.

The sight of the fifth and supposedly last actually got the blood pumping.

With a smile on his face he started rotating his arcane barrage and missiles on everything that showed as a target. He was close enough to see the bright glow in the Lich King's eyes as he stepped slowly forward.

Niark was actually starting to suffer from the snowstorm surrounding the monster when the barrier finally fell.

Rushing forward everyone stepped onto the stone balcony outside of the dreaded tower.

He was about to ask what happened next when the fliers arrived and started shooting at the mouth of the cavern.

With a sigh he saw the heavy stones block the tall human away from them.

-'Is that it?' Breena asked.

-'Yup that's it, now we just get onto the flier and get the heck out of here.'

-'Sweet. Thanks guys.'

-'Yeah thanks.'

-'GJ everyone.' Niark congratulated.

Harry was running up the gangplank when he noticed Breena keeping pace.

-'That was fun.' She whispered.

-'It was, It was my first time doing it too.' Harry whispered back.

-'Yeah I saw the two achieves pop up, wtg.'

They both stepped onto the flying boat and walked to the treasure chest sitting on the deck.

Breena had just finished opening it when Harry noticed the tiny black square sitting behind it.

-'What's that?' He asked out loud.

-'Dean's laptop?' It was Niark who answered.

-'The laptop?' Sylvan added a second later.

-'Yes.' Harry stepped towards it as the loot popped up on his screen.

-'That's been here for about a month and a half now.'

-'Yup, it's not clickable so no one bothered about it why?'

-'Oh my god it's dean's laptop.' Breena exclaimed.

As Harry thought at the laptop he could see the little progress bar indicating that he was retrieving something.

-'Hey you can click it!' Exclaimed Niark.

-'Yes, it's what brought me here.' Harry said absentmindedly as he opened his backpack and examined the item.

-'What does it do?'

-'What is it?'

-'Harry?' The last comment came slowly as if Breena was afraid to ask.

Not Breena.

-'Hermione?'

Having no comments on it Harry thought at the artifact .

-'Oh My GOD Harry! where are you?'

As those words came to his ears he felt the whole world tilt around him and he disappeared.


	22. Chapter 22

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>He took a deep breath of the air.<p>

Harry could smell the tones of grass and metal again.

The world of Warcraft didn't have smells and the difference was jarring.

He was down on one knee, fist straight against the ground to hold himself steady.

His eyes opened slowly and he looked around.

He was kneeling a few feet from train tracks that looked rarely used but well maintained.

Slowly Harry stood up and took a deeper breath of the fragrant air.

A breeze played across his torso and tickled his bare legs.

The boy who lived felt real cold for the first time in a month and it felt more wonderful then anything he had ever felt before.

Now all that was needed was to get to his friends and make sure they were all right.

The spellbook popped in the air in front of him and he quickly switched to the mounts page.

Dragon, dragon, dragon, Hyppogryphs.

Dragon it was then.

It took a few seconds of concentration and he found himself astride the red beast.

With a mere thought he sent it soaring towards London. Grimmauld place was the logical place to look first.

As the plains gave way to roads and then towns he started looking for a familiar landmark to stir by.

It was a blessing that the first time he had gone there it had been by broom unfortunately it had also been at night.

Absentmindedly he pulled out his spellbook and cast his buffs.

The mage armor deadened the sensation of the air brushing against his torso but the arcane intellect sharpened his thought to the point where he could see the map of London overlap over his memory of flying there.

There.

Below him Grimmauld place loomed larger and larger.

He was maybe 500 yards above it still partially hidden by the low hanging clouds when he finally flew right above it.

Without a second thought he sent his steed back to the magic it came from and started to drop.

The mage armor kept the wind mostly at bay as he accelerated faster and faster towards the ground.

When he was less then 50 ft up he cast the slowfall spell.

As if he had a parachute he started gently drifting closer and closer to number 12.

It was only when he landed that he realized that it was good luck that the square was empty so early in the morning otherwise he would have some explaining to do.

With less noise then a cat he set foot on the rough pavement of Grimmauld Place.

The mage armor was still affecting the intensity of his tactile sensations but even without it he would have barely felt the impact.

He blinked to the door and without the slightest hesitation opened the door.

The first thing that struck him was the big hole where the horrible portrait used to be.

He smiled as he realized that Remus had probably gotten tired of it and done something about it.

He heard the sound of cutlery and plates from the kitchen and turned towards it.

It took him a few long strides to get to the slightly open door.

He heard the subdued conversations coming from all the people in there. Even for breakfast they all seemed extremely downcast.

* * *

><p>-'Ginny you have to eat something.' Ms Weasley as trying to push a plate of toast towards her youngest daughter.<p>

-'I'm ok mom.' She did not look up as she said this. 'I'm not hungry.'

-'Come on little sister...'

-'You know you'll feel better …'

-'With a little food in you.'

Fred and George were not smiling either but they tried to encourage everyone anyway.

Hermione barreled into the room.

-'I think I found Harry!'

The clink of dropped cutlery was only outdone by Remus' chair flying back.

He rushed to grabbed her by the shoulders.

-'Where? Where is he?'

-'Uh,..., In the game.' She was taken aback by the intensity in the older mans voice.

-'What game?'

-'That computer thingy?'

-'In WOW?'

-'What?'

The exclamations came from all around the table as everyone expressed the degree of understanding for Hermione's hobby for the past month.

-'Uh I was, …, I was playing and some guy name Sairius was doing the heroic with me and then we saw dean's laptop and then when he said it was his I asked him if he was Harry and he asked me if I was Hermione and then he disappeared!'

Remus felt the rage take a hold of him. He wanted to rush out and protected the last cub of his pack.

Closing his eyes he tried with all his being to pull it back. He could feel his teeth grinding as the beast was slowly pushed down.

-'Hermione would you mind explaining with a little more details for those of us that never played your game?' The calm and composed request came, surprisingly, from Ms. Weasley.

Gently letting go of her shoulders Remus nodded.

-'Yes, please Hermione.'

With a cautious look at the distraught werewolf she took the chair in front of her and started explaining what had just happened in the game.

-'And so he picked up this artifact and started casting some spell. Next thing I know he's gone, not just teleported away but completely logged out.'

It was as those last quiet words came out that the door behind her opened with a creak.

-'Hey guys.'

Harry braced himself as a brown haired projectile impacted against his chest.

Looking around he could see all the red haired faces gaping with open mouths at him.

Only Remus seemed to have gotten over his shock and was now hugging him and Hermione for all he was worth.

It shocked him to realize that the older man had to crane his head back to look him in the face.

-'Harry?' This came from Ron. The boy was half standing from his chair as he tried to make sense of the apparition in front of him.

-'The one and only.' Harry smiled as he tried to gently push Hermione away.

-'Hum Harry?' Ginny spoke tentatively with her eyes resolutely glued to his face.

-'Yes?' He answered only to see Ginny blush and look away.

-'What our dear sister is trying to say Harry...'

-'... Is that while it is nice to see you alive...'

-'...It would be even nicer to see a little less of you.' The twins seesawed with huge grins on their faces.

The squeal from Hermione barely beat his stare at his own body.

While he had kept the perfect form he had had in the game it seemed that all his fancy armor was in his backpack.

With a smile he pushed Hermione to arm length and thought at his backpack.

As it popped up he swiftly equipped all of his last tier items one by one.

He missed the looks of shock as one by one his clothing appeared directly on his body.

Only when his hood covered his face did Hermione step back with her jaw dropping.

The items gave their power even in this world and he could feel the magic working on his mind and his body as is magic replenished at a truly alarming rate.

-'Better?' He was looking at the twins as he said this but he could hear the heavy thunks as everyone else's jaw hit the floor.

-'Sairius.' Hermione whispered.

Harry smiled under the hood and despite the purple glow in his eyes Hermione was reassured, this was her friend.

-'Harry, by Jove, what happened to you?' Remus grabbed his arm and tried to convey his relief in his grip.

-'Yeah Harry,...'

-'You leave for a month …'

-'And a half and you come back …'

-'A foot and a half taller and …'

-'Build like a pro rugby player …'

-'What gives?'

Steering Hermione gently he managed to untangle her from him and move towards the table.

With a gentle hand on her shoulder he managed to sit her down again.

-'It happened on the train from school.' As everyone at the table nodded he continued. 'I was making a character on Dean's laptop,' He gestured at himself. 'When Cho walked into the compartment.' Because he was looking at Ms. Weasley he missed the murderous spark in Ginny and Hermione's eyes. 'She said something about vengeance I think and then threw little silver beads at us.' He looked down for a second. 'Everything it hit seemed to disappear but it went so fast that I couldn't dodge.' Ron nodded at this. 'One of them hit me and one of them hit the laptop, next thing I knew I was waking up in Azeroth as this.' He gestured again at his new body.

-'And you had no way to contact us?' Ron asked.

-'I don't think so, it wasn't like I was somewhere in the real world where I could have just picked up the phone.' He shook his head.

-'What about Hermione? She told us that she spoke to you a couple of times.' Remus retorted.

Squeezing gently her shoulder Harry looked at his werewolf friend.

-'I didn't know it was her, she said she was using her cousin's account and everyone I met there was American anyway.'

-'What happened then Dear?' Ms Weasley said to cut the tension.

-'It was like a compulsion, I kept getting quests and completing them was like an itch so I kept doing them until this morning.' He smiled in recollection. 'You gotta admit it was a nice run right Breena?'

-'It was the most difficult run I've ever done!' Hermione answered vehemently.

-'Well we can try again and maybe when you log out you'll be a night elf!' He grinned at her as he said this.

With a blush she slapped him across the stomach.

-'Hermione told us you found Dean's laptop there?'

-'Yeah, it was on the airship and it looks like I was able to grab it and when I used it it Hearthed me back to where I logged in.'

-'Wait, wouldn't your Hearth bring you back to Dalaran?' Hermione looked at him curiously.

-'Well I still have my standard one and it looks like the laptop acts as a Hearth to the real world.'

Shaking off the stupefaction at all the unfamiliar terms Ms Weasley came around to pat him on the shoulder.

This proved to be easier said then done as the armor he wore protruded almost at the same height as his head which was two feet above Ms. Weasleys.

-'I'll go floo the headmaster right now dear he's been beside himself with worry about you.'

Harry smiled at her.

-'So how was it mate? Tell us.' Ron gestured at the changes in his friend.

-'It was surreal Ron,' He patted Hermione on the shoulder. 'Did you see the game from her computer?' As Ron shook his head he continued. 'It was magnificent, everything that muggles dream of when they think of magic.' He shook his head. 'Gleaming white cities full of elves dwarfs and gnomes, magician towers bigger on the inside then on the outside. Flying boats and dragons.'

-'How many do you have?' Hermione interrupted.

-'I've got 2 dragons and 2 proto drakes.' He smiled with pride.

-'I'm sorry but did you just say you have pet dragons?' Remus asked stunned.

-'Yes, 4 of them.'

-'It's going to be fun the next time you play Quidditch!' Ron exclaimed with glee.

-'Wait,' Hermione looked at him shocked. 'You can summon them here?'

-'Well yes, how do you think I came here from the train tracks? I ran?'

-'What about your other powers then?'

-'I tried a couple of spells and my buffs and they all worked just fine.'

He was shocked when Hermione put both her hands on her mouth to stifle a scream.

-'What's wrong Hermione?' Ginny asked as she rounded the table.

-'I read the story of WOW,' She tried to breath slowly as she spoke. 'They didn't have many mages like you but the few they had were on a par with Arthas, and where fought a lot of time the grass never grew again.'

-'The blasted lands?' Harry asked curiously.

-'Among others, but you're going to have to be careful.'

-'Don't worry about it Hermione, I mean what are the odds that I'm going to have to use offensive magic now that I'm out of the game?'

-'With your luck?' She gave him a thousand yard stare. 'I'm surprised you didn't get attacked on the way here.'

Harry laughed deeply as the truth of his friends remark hit him.

-'Fair enough. I'll try to be careful then I promise.'

-'I'm sorry Hermione but I haven't seen your game I'm not sure what you mean.' Remus was still holding on to a chair for support.

-'There are a couple of places in WOW that are roughly the size of England, In those places mages did battle. Usually only a few mages, we're not talking armies here.' She gestured with her hand for emphasis. 'Now those places are known as the blasted lands and Badlands respectively.'

-'Huge deserts where almost nothing grows except weeds and animals with extremely sharp claws.'

-'Exactly so I'm trying to make sure Harry doesn't turn England into something like that.' Hermione patted her friend on the arm.

-'Fair enough,' Remus answered a bit stunned. 'I guess all that's left is to bring Harry back to life.'

It was only Fred and George's smiles that stopped him from uttering the first thing that came to mind.

He was however saved the trouble by Ron.

-'What do you mean back to life?' He gestured towards his clearly changed friend. 'he looks seriously alive to me.'

-'He means...'

-'...Legally, Little...'

-'...Brother, Harry was...'

-'...Declared dead by...'

-'...The headmaster and...'

-'...Amelia Bones herself so...'

-'...Remus inherited everything.'

-'Aaaah, ok.' Ron nodded.

-'So once everyone is dressed we should stop at the ministry first?' Harry nodded at everyone's current pyjama looking attires.

The scrabble to get out was stopped by Ms. Weasley.

-'He's in a meeting I left a message,' She looked at her brood scrambling from their food to get out of the room. 'What are you all doing?'

-'We're gonna go with Harry to the ministry Mom.' Ginny answered.

-'You, young lady are going nowhere, I am still waiting to see your completed homework before you go into any more foolhardy adventure.' She turned to the twins. 'You two have a, to my regret, successful business to go run.' She stopped as Harry laughed.

-'Oh you have no idea how much I've missed all of you.' He turned to Molly. 'But you're right, I'll just take Ron and Hermione and Remus can be our adult escort.'

-'Good idea Harry, let me just get out of my PJ's and we can let Ron and Hermione,' Remus looked at Ron's conspicuously empty plate. 'Or just Hermione I guess finish eating.'

-'What about you dear, aren't you starving?' Ms. Weasley was already grabbing a plate as she said this.

-'No I'm fine Ms. Weasley, I ate right after the fight and I've still got a dozen strudels.' He backed away slowly. 'I'll just wait in the living room while you guys get ready ok?'

He pushed the door gently and took in the changed atmosphere.

Remus had been at work here and he had changed the dank place to a cozy living room centered around the fireplace.

There were two armchairs facing it and he chose the one that was obviously less used.

Closing his eyes he let the warmth slowly sip into him. His frost armor was still active but it served to enhance the feeling of peace that started in his stomach and spread to the tips of his body.

He was contemplating this feeling when he realized that something was nagging him.

It was almost like a quest in WOW. It was coming from the fireplace for some reason.

Standing slowly he walked over and gingerly put his hand on the mantlepiece.

The spiraling yellow lights that surrounded him had become familiar but the gasp of surprise from behind him was less so.

-'What was that?' Remus's voice came from the door to the entrance hall.

Holding his hand up Harry concentrated once more and a second spiral of light sprang up.

-'This is what happens when I learn a new spell.' he turned back to the chair and sat down.

-'What spell did you learn?' Remus sat, Harry noticed with a smile, In the other armchair and it fit his body perfectly.

-'The first one was a teleportation spell. It works the other way around in WOW, first you have to go to a place then you can learn to teleport there.'

-'So now you can teleport here at will?'

-'Yes, though I need runes of teleportation to do it.' Harry answered.

-'And the second spell?'

-'Oh that was a portal spell to the same place, so that if you are,' He paused for a second. 'I guess the easiest way to say it is if you are on my team you can use it without knowing the spell to get here.'

-'By Jove, this is fascinating!' Remus seemed genuinely fascinated by the idea.

-'What is?' Ron walked into the parlor fully dressed with something draped over his arm.

-'The spells that Harry learned in the game seem to function here and he can even learn new ones.' Remus answered.

Shrugging his shoulder Ron tried to express with his face that yes this was magic and it did fantastic things what was so fascinating about that?

-'Here Harry, those are some of my cloth that Mum tried to fit to you, you can't go out into the street in full magic regalia.'

Harry looked down at his purple and eery lights outfit and nodded.

-'Thanks mate.' He stood up and grabbed the cloth from his friend.

-'Of course, plus in this you'd be wicked conspicuous.'

Harry pushed his clothing to his backpack and started putting the new cloth on.

The jean and t-shirt fit fine but the jacket seemed to be about two sizes too big even on his new frame.

-'Here Harry,' Remus took his wand and cast something at him.

The jacket seemed to shrink slowly and when it was just a little loose it stopped.

-'Much better, thanks Remus.' Harry let his hair out of the ponytail and rubbed his scalp for a second.

-'I was wondering about the outfit.' Hermione piped in as she walked through the door.

-'Are we all ready then?' Harry answered.

-'We seem to be, let's go.' Remus waved towards the entrance.

The trip to the phone booth was a little cramped. The only taxi passing by at this time had been a 5 seater and the three children had had to squeeze in the back.

This was not helped by Harry's bulk. Even without his armor he cut an impressive figure.

When they had arrived at the booth they had all agreed that this would have to be done in two groups and Hermione and Harry had waited patiently for the booth to come back up.

The lobby of the ministry had been rebuilt from the attack two months ago.

The fountain once again stood proudly in the middle of the hall.

As he walked towards it Harry felt once again the powerful urge to place his hand on the fountain itself.

He heard the muffled gasps all around him as the spirals appeared and disappeared in brief successions.

-'Another portal?' Remus asked quietly as he looked around at all the curious faces.

-'Yup, a less useful one I'm going to guess but still.'

-'It would have been useful last year that's for sure.' Ron piped up.

-'Shall we get a move on before we attract even more attention to ourselves?' Hermione tried to push them in the direction of the entrance.

The same guard in what looked like the same robes was waiting at the desk.

-'Four visitors for Mr Shacklebolt.' Remus held on to Ron and Hermione's shoulders as he nodded towards Harry.

-'Step over here,' said the wizard in a bored voice.

Harry walked closer to him and the wizard held up a long golden rod, thin and flexible as

a car aerial, and passed it up and down Harry's front and back.

-'Wand,' grunted the security wizard at Harry, putting down the golden instrument and

holding out his hand.

-'Actually I don't have my wand.' Harry looked sheepish.

-'This here says you're carrying one.' The guard did not even look up as he said it.

-'Oh right sorry I forgot.' From seemingly out of thin air Harry extracted a wicked rod made of metal with a purple light between the pincers that made the tip of it.

The guard quirked an eyebrow at this. With a slow hand he grabbed the proffered wand and put it on the scale.

It began to vibrate and after almost 30 seconds jerkily extruded a small piece of parchment.

With another slow motion the guard tore it off and stared at Harry.

-'Fourteen inches, made of Elementium with a core of Lesser Celestial Essence? It's been in use for... a... week?' The guards voice was slowing as he read the information.

-'Sounds about right, I wasn't told what it was made of when I bought it but I got it about a week ago yes.'

The guard looked at Harry curiously.

-'Are you sure this is your wand?' He grabbed it and started examining it.

-'Certain, it's bound to me, no one else can use it.'

-'I'm not sure I can let you in with that Mr,...' He started searching Harry for the badge with his name on it. 'Potter. Potter?' he stared at his forehead, craning his neck to actually see the young boys head.

-'Then you can keep it safe for me until I get out.' Harry smiled down at the man.

Hermione opened her mouth to protest when Remus squeezed gently.

Squinting up at him the guard nodded slowly. He handed Harry the receipt and put the wand in one of the small drawers in his desk.

-'Next.' He said gruffly.

When the three other wands had been weighed and returned they made their way to the elevators.

-'Why did you let him take it off of you Harry?' Hermione hissed at him.

-'Because it doesn't matter does it?' It was Ron who answered as he pushed the call button.

-'What?' She gaped at him. 'But it's his wand.'

-'No it's not Hermione, it's just a wand I picked up in Azeroth, it doesn't cast anything but a frost bolt and since it's soulbound to me no one else can use it.' They walked into the elevator. 'It does boost my intelligence and stamina but compared to the rest of my armor it's a negligible amount.'

-'If you say so Harry.' She stared worriedly up as the elevator started moving.

-'How much of a boost are we talking Harry?' Remus asked from the other side.

-'It's hard to quantify in terms of cognitive power because after a certain threshold it because minutiaes but with my armor and my arcane intelligence I would guess somewhere above two hundred.'

-'That's an amazing number.' Remus gaped at the thought. 'You could do anything with a mind like that.'

It was Hermione who shook her head at this.

-'That's not the way it works Remus.' She looked at Harry as he nodded in agreement. 'An IQ like this means that you can process information faster and that your short term memory holds more information but it doesn't magically grant you knowledge, you still have to learn things the old fashioned way.'

-'Like your computer right?' Ron piped up.

-'What do you mean?' Hermione looked at him questioningly.

-'Well you could put in a better processor and more memory but as long as you don't add stuff, the programs, it won't do any new things, it'll just do the old ones faster.' Ron answered a bit worriedly.

-'Exactly Ron. I have all my engineering training and I'm sure I could use it here but I wouldn't be able to make up new spells because I don't know anything about spell theory.' He nodded as the doors opened.

-'I think I see what you guys mean.' Remus followed them out of the elevator. 'Still, the possibilities are fascinating.'

They stopped in front of a desk. The plaque on it stated "Secretary to the Head of Magical Law Enforcement".

-'Good morning, may I help you?' the young witch behind the desk looked up from her work.

-'Yes please, could you inform Mr Shacklebolt that Harry Potter and Remus Lupin would like to see him immediately.' Remus answered in a genial tone.

Harry suppressed a smile at the stunned look that crossed the lady's face at the mention of his name.

He was even more impressed when she he saw her school her features and smile professionally.

-'If you would have a seat I'll inform him that you're here.' She stood up.

-'Thank you.' Remus answered before steering them to the couches that lined the opposite wall.

-'Wait, Shacklebolt?' Harry stared at the door that the young witch had gone through.

-'I forget that you weren't here for most of it,' Ron spoke up. 'Mdm Bones was murdered a few weeks ago.'

-'Voldemort?' Harry looked grim.

-'Probably,' Remus answered gravely. 'Shacklebolt has been filling in until someone is appointed by Scrimgeour.'

-'Whose Scrimgeour?' Harry frowned.

-'He's the new minister Harry.' Hermione looked up at him. 'he was appointed after the fiasco last June.'

-'Any other surprises I need to know about?' He scanned their faces. 'Is he a Death Eater?'

-'Not as far as we know no, he used to be an auror and Tonks and Kingsley speak well of him.' Remus answered.

-'Fair enough.' Harry nodded at them as the door reopened.

-'Mr Shacklebolt will see you now.' The secretary said as she held the door open.

With a smile Harry went through the door first.

The office was a professional affair. Mostly the walls were covered in file cabinets and the magical window showed what looked to be a new york skyline.

Behind the massive desk sat a visibly intrigued Kingsley.

He scrutinized Harry closely and ignored the others as they filed in behind him.

Only when the door was closed did he speak up.

-'There's a privacy field when the door is closed.' His eyes barely flickered to Remus as he continued. 'Would you like to explain what this is all about?'

It was Hermione that spoke up.

-'This morning I found that Harry hadn't been killed, he'd just been sent to a parallel world and we finally got him out.' As the older man nodded she continued. 'We tried to tell Dumbledore but he's busy so we figured the next order of business was reversing the death certificate.'

-'How can I be sure you're you Mr Potter?' Kingsley still had not looked away.

-'I'm not sure myself how I would prove it except by the traditional "ask me something you and I know" but in this case it could be broken.' Harry stared back confidently.

-'True Mr Potter. Your wand would be another good test.'

-'I'm sure it would be but as far as I know that's with the rest of my effects at Hogwarts.' He shrugged.

-'What about the one you gave downstairs?' Ron piped up.

-'You gave you wand to the guard?' As Harry nodded he continued. 'In that case I'll get a copy of the receipt, it should have your name on it.' He leaned towards the intercom with his left hand when Harry interrupted.

-'Actually I've got the receipt here.' He put his hand in his back pocket. 'For some reason he wanted to keep my wand, he didn't seem to trust me.'

Extending his hand he gestured for Harry to hand it over.

Laying the piece of paper on his desk he slowly withdrew his right hand from under the desk.

Delicately he laid his own wand onto the desktop.

-'I can't say how glad I am to see you alive Mr Potter.' For the first time since they had walked in Kingsley smiled.

-'Sorry to have worried you Mr Shacklebolt.' Harry smiled back.

-'What can I do for you?'

-'Well for starters we need to re-declare him alive legally,' Hermione piped up. 'Then we would need to get the word to Dumbledore.'

-'I can do the first without any problem,' He stood up. 'I've got the forms right here. But for the second it's going to be difficult.' He grabbed a piece of paper and walked back to his desk. 'He's been looking for a man for the professor position and he hasn't given me anyway to get in touch with him.'

-'We'll be with him and we'll try to keep Molly appraised of our location so when you do get in touch you can have him get in touch with her.' Remus answered.

-'Fair enough, Do you have any idea of your plans until you get back there?' He stamped the piece of paper and folded it into an envelope.

-'I think Gringotts will be my next stop so I can have access to my vaults back,' Shacklebolt nodded at this. 'And then we can go back home and relax a little.'

-'Very well Harry,' He pushed a button on his desk. 'If it's alright with you I'd like to assign a guard at least until you get home.' A beep sounded and he leaned towards the box sitting on his desk. 'Melanie, could you have auror Tonks sent here please?' He nodded at the acknowledgment from his secretary. 'She'll be here in a minute.'

-'I'm not sure a guard would be necessary sir.' Harry asked as he stepped away from the door.

-'It would be for my piece of mind and it'll avoid any unpleasantness in case you meet any aurors there and they start asking questions.' He leaned back on his chair.

-'We'll be happy to have her with us Shack, don't worry.' Remus chimed in from the couch.

Raising an eyebrow at his friend Harry held his peace.

The silence stretch for 30 seconds when a polite knock came from the door.

Touching his desk Shacklebolt spoke up.

-'Come in.'

The door opened and a statuesque blonde walked in.

She was wearing torn jeans and a leather jacket but it did not detract from her face in any way.

It was only when she almost tripped on the carpet that everyone spoke up.

-'Morning Tonks.'

She smiled at Ron and Hermione and gave a huge grin at Remus.

It was only when she turned from nodding at her boss that she stopped.

-'Good morning sir, auror Tonks.' She all but saluted.

-'Wotcher Tonks.' Harry smiled back.

Seeing the look of confusion Shacklebolt came to her aid.

-'This is Harry Potter, Tonks.'

Harry was only slightly shocked to see her take a step back.

-'How can that be Shack, Harry's dead.' She took another slow step back. 'Plus Harry was,' She gestured with her hand at barely above elbow height. 'And this guy is,' Once again she gestured but this time her hand was almost a foot above her own head.

-'I had his identity magically verified Tonks, this is one Harry James Potter.'

Her eyes as wide as saucers Tonks stopped backing away.

-'But how did he get so,' She tried to indicate with her hands the foot and a half of height as well as the build of a pro wrestler that has been preparing for a really tough tournament and the ponytail belonging to someone who's been letting it grow since he hit 16 and in this case that was a while ago.

The gesture was surprisingly effective.

-'Magic auror Tonks, Magic.' Shacklebolt was quite stern.

-'Magic?' Tonks turned to him in mounting shock. 'How can magic do this?'

-'It's magic Tonks, it doesn't need an explanation, it's MAGIC.' Shacklebolt tapped impatiently on his desktop. 'Muggle borns honestly.' He muttered. 'I will need you to escort Mr Potter in his travels today and make sure everything goes smoothly, when he's back at his house you can come back here and report to me.'

Everyone was standing up to leave when Tonks shook herself out of the stupor.

Harry opened the door and gestured everyone through.

-'Have a god day Shack.' He nodded at him as he closed the door.

The walk to the entrance was spent in relative silence as Tonks kept glancing surreptitiously at Harry and Ron and Hermione were trying to hold down their giggles at the aurors behavior.

The snag came when they arrived at the wand station.

-'Hello again,' Harry smiled as he handed his receipt. 'We're taking off so I'd like my wand back please.'

The man took a look at the receipt and glanced back at his magazine.

-'It's been confiscated.'

-'I beg your pardon?' Harry put his hand down.

-'Someone came over and took it since it's not an authorized wand material or core and it belongs to a dead ward of the state.' He turned a page of his magazine.

-'Was it Humbridge?' Hermione asked ice dripping from her words.

-'Dunno.' He looked up briefly.

Putting his hand on Hermione's shoulder Harry stepped forward.

-'I think we can resolve this better Hermione.' He pushed her behind him calmly.'I'd like to know exactly who took my wand please.'

The guard folded his reading and looked up.

-'Well I don't remember who it was, go talk to the department of state if you want more information.'

Harry stepped forward until he was next to the desk.

Looking the guard in the eye he extended his hand to the left and grinned hugely.

He saw the man's eyes bulge when the ice formed in his palm.

When the flames started erupting from around it he actually took a step back.

A second later the bolt of fire and ice flashed into the desk and obliterated it.

With nothing to hide behind they could see the man's knees shaking.

-'I'd like to know exactly who took my wand please.' Harry repeated just as calmly.

-'I told you I don't know who it was.' The man tried to back up from Harry but hit against the wall.

Slowly Harry brought his right hand in front of the man's face.

-'I'd like to know exactly who took my wand please.'

As he spoke a ball of flame started growing in his palm.

-'It was Mr Malfoy!' The man was staring with horror at the flames that were still growing just in front of his nose.

-'Thank you, one more question.' Harry kept his hand straight. 'Where did he go?'

-'Malfoy Manor,' The men was on the verge of tears it seemed. 'He went back home.'

Harry slowly closed his hand over the ball of flame.

As the wisps blew out he leaned forward with murder in his eye.

-'And finally, and let me assure that a wrong answer WILL cost you all your points, Where is Malfoy manor?'

The man actually broke down in tears.

-'It's north of Daventry on the other side of the reservoir.'

Harry turned from the man and spoke up.

-'That's the town north on M1 right?' He mostly directed his question at Hermione.

-'Yes it is Harry but you can't just go there on your own.' Remus answered.

-'Watch me.' He turned towards the fireplaces and blinked forward.

He appeared a few feet from the flames and with a quick gesture he grabbed the powder from the urn and threw it in.

-'Daventry!'

As he stepped in the flames he remembered why he hated that method of travel.

A few minutes of spinning ejected him in the lobby of a hotel.

Picking himself up he looked around hurriedly.

Not one of the patrons seemed to have noticed his arrival.

Obviously there was some sort of Muggle repellent charm on the fireplace.

Brushing himself off quickly he stepped towards the doors and exited the hotel.

The road sign across the street stated that The reservoir was half mile north on Ashby road.

Harry looked around for witnesses.

Seeing none he quickly opened his spellbook and selected his ride.

Dragons and giant tigers were utterly out of the question but this one would almost not pass comments.

In a cloud of smoke he found himself astride it.

It deserved the Hog name.

It was a monstrosity of metal and leather and it was clear as he revved the engine that the muffler had been designed to keep the smoke out of his face rather then any sort of protection against noise.

Grinning ear to ear Harry set the Hog on the way to Malfoy manor.

He had barely gone 5 minutes when he felt the magic of wards off to his right.

There was a small footpath going off the road he turned abruptly into it.

The ride was a little bumpier as he followed it through a small forest.

The sight that greeted him would have astonished if less then 24 hours ago he had not been hanging out in a city floating in the sky.

The manor deserved the name. Being the wrought Iron gate was a castle definitively too big for 3 people to share.

He had to stop a few feet from the gates as the wards surrounding the place blocked him.

-'Very well.'

With a thought Harry sent the bike back.

He stood calmly in front of the gate and prepared.

In a blink he had changed from his street cloth to the magical garments.

With another thought he cast the magics that would hone his mind and protect his body from armful magic.

He took one last look at the house and pushed his hands forward.

There was barely a second as a bolt of arcane power blasted through the wards and took the gates with them.

Another thought brought his bike back to this world and he rode up the garden path to the doors of the ancient and noble house of Malfoy.

Letting his right go back once again he sent another blast towards the doors.

This time only one was blasted off its hinges into the hall behind.

As he stepped forward a cyan bolt flew through the open door to where he had been standing.

With a thought Harry blinked inside the structure and quickly turned around.

Two men in butler uniforms were edging towards the opening.

Casting his frost Nova Harry stepped forward and focused on the closest man.

When the wave of frost iced their legs to the grounds both of them cried out.

The arcane barrage blasted the first out the door and before the second could turn around Harry launched a wave of missiles at him.

The missiles having shattered the ice the man fell against the still shut door unconscious.

Blinking back outside Harry arrived almost on top of the recovering man.

This one had obviously had some training because rather then just gape he started pointing his wand and mouthing another spell.

Harry grabbed his staff quickly and with an experienced swipe pushed the wand away from him.

A quick jab to the man's chest assured that he would not do anything but try desperately to breath for a few minutes.

-'Where's the drawing room?' Harry leaned down.

The man lay gasping and staring into Harry's glowing blue eyes.

Deliberately Harry picked the man's wand out of his hand and put it in his bag.

-'You get that back when I get mine back, now where is the drawing room?'

-'It's to the right, just through the doors and then on the left.' The man answered between coughs.

-'Thank you.' Harry straightened up. 'you'll want to lean forward, this attack sometimes makes people vomit.

Without a second glance Harry turned back and walked into the manor.

Using the normal method he opened the doors and strode into the corridor beyond.

The house was a splendor of architecture and decoration.

The windows were wall to ceiling and captured the natural light beautifully.

He was admiring the stucco ceiling when he realized that he was here for a purpose.

Harry backtracked a little and opened the first door.

The drawing room was exactly what he expected from a typical English household.

Bar the size and few odd magical items on the walls, this could have been Privet Dr. .

He blinked to the center of the room and looked around.

The secret compartment was under the floor and a team of aurors had not found it without help.

One thing to do then.

An arcane explosion cleared the room by blasting all the furniture into pieces against the walls.

The carpet was partially shredded and a quick fire blast finished it completely.

The floor was of hardwood and appeared solid to the naked eye.

Well under the floor was under the floor.

Harry took three steps back and unleashed.

The missiles hit in fours and each one was ripping several planks.

It was only a few seconds before the edge of what looked like a stairwell was revealed.

Harry reoriented to that the missiles would hit the center of the magical trapdoor and unleashed once again.

It took only a few more hits for it to completely collapse.

The stairs led down to a small room lined with shelves.

Harry noticed with a smile that most of those were empty.

Though there was little dust on the shelves he could see where quite a few items had been removed in the recent past.

Unfortunately non of them held his wand or anything that could have contained it.

-'Dratt!' He quickly exited the small room to find himself a few feet from Malfoy Junior.

-'Hello Draco.' He grinned ear to ear at the shocked boy.

-'How dare you enter our house! Who are you?' Malfoy tried to inject all the hauteur of his station in his tone.

Unfortunately this was dampened somewhat by the obvious fear that the destruction around him instilled in him.

-'Why Malfoy you don't recognize your school comrade?' Harry took a step toward the little ponce.

-'I've never seen you in my life peasant, now explain yourself.' Draco flourished his wand.

-'It's me, Harry Potter, Malfoy.' Harry let the glowing orbs that his cowl created penetrate the other boys face.

-'It can't be,' Malfoy stepped back in shock. 'You're dead!' he tried to squint into the shadows of Harry's hood. 'The dark lord himself assured us that you had moved on.'

-'And he was right Draco,' Harry prepared the frostfire bolt and let Malfoy see the energies accumulating in his hand. 'But now I'm back,' He unleashed it on the collection that remained behind him. 'And your daddy stole something from me. I want it back Draco.'

-'What …' The blonde boy was interrupted by the ball of flame and frost that erupted from the concealed chamber.

-'My wand Draco, he took my wand.' Harry blinked behind the boy and unleashed another explosion.

He grinned as Draco was propelled forward and stop only a few inches from what remained of the secret room.

With a few stride he was standing right by the sprawled blonde.

He pointed his staff at the boys throat before he spoke.

-'Where is he Malfoy?'

-'He's in the south wing, he went there as soon as he came home.'

-'Then let's go see him.' With a quick twist Harry slammed the crystals at the top of his staff against the boys temple.

He grinned as the boy slumped back.

Bending down he grabbed the boys foot and started dragging him along.

The trip to the wing was free of any interruption and Harry was able to pull the unconscious heir with him with minimal damage.

The doors leading to the room had been heavily spelled to prevent entrance.

Harry had discovered this the hard way and was now trying to nurse his hand.

A barrage into the doors scorched the wood but did not seem to have enough strength to force them open.

-'I guess your dad went all out when it was a matter of protecting himself huh?'

Oh well, the question here was power so he might as well go all out.

Making sure his mana reserve had been replenished e started casting.

Arcane blast was one of his slowest spells.

It had the distinct advantage however of being the hardest hitting thing in his arsenal.

The first explosion actually shook the foundations.

He was preparing the second when he heard the hurried footsteps behind the door.

The second blast profited from the compound effect of this particular spell and a crack appeared through the left door.

The gasp of shock from within was quite clear.

When the third spell hit the power combined blasted the doors to splinters.

Harry was quite glad for his frost armor as it saved him from quite a few splinters.

As he looked through the now open doorway he realized that someone had not been so lucky.

Lucius Malfoy was leaning against the wall on the other side of the doorway.

From the pinpricks of red several splinters had managed to penetrate deep enough to draw blood.

Luckily for him he seemed to have protected his face in time and the murderous glare he threw him was devoid of blood.

-'How dare you!'

-'Good morning Lucius,' Harry hurled an arcane barrage.

Malfoy was through the first syllable of a shielding spell when the energies blasted him into the plaster behind him.

Harry was shocked to see the man stand back up from the attack.

The purple curse that flew from the blonde man's wand was fast and even with his reflexes Harry was not able to dodge it completely.

The armor seemed to absorb the blunt of it however and looking down he saw that the only proof he had been hit was a slight warmth on his left arm.

-'Touch...' Harry was about to say when a yellow then a blue curse flew his way.

He blinked instinctively and found himself 2 inches from the wall only 6 feet away from the senior Malfoy.

Both curses made a loud enough impact that Harry turned to look at their effect.

It seemed that the blonde man was a Death Eater for reasons other then simply his money.

He had obviously anticipated a normal dodging method from his opponent and sent some sort of acid splash where Harry would have been if he had not blinked away.

A frost nova exploded out of Harry as he took his bearings.

Stepping back he prepared another arcane blast.

Malfoy was visibly shocked by the ice that encased his feet but he turned to Harry and still without saying a word sent another yellow curse his way.

Unfortunately for Harry moving meant canceling his spell so he stayed in place.

He was only partially astonished to see the visible effects of his protection on the spell.

First his dampen magic field visibly dimmed the light as it entered it.

Then his mage armor seemed to diffuse the majority of the impact across his body rather the dead center on his chest as he was sure Malfoy had intended.

The curse was obviously a flame based weapon intended to burn the victim.

Luckily when it was deflect it barely felt like walking onto the beach from an air conditioned hotel.

-'As I was saying, Touche Mr Malfoy.' Harry quipped as he launched his arcane blast.

The energies unleashed picked the man up and hurled him a good twenty feet back down the corridor.

As he was sliding down he managed to twist to face the boy who was dominating their little match.

-'_Incarcerous Tonsor_!'

Guessing the nature of the added syllables Harry tried to blink out of the way.

Since his spell was still recharging he was standing there when the barbed wires exploded out of the ground.

The razor sharp pieces of metal however could not penetrate the magical weave that made up his armor and even though he couldn't move he wasn't actually getting hurt.

-'Let's,' The older man coughed loudly as he tried to stand up. 'Let's hear you make jokes now boy!'

-'You don't think you've actually beat me do you?' His blink had recharged but maybe he could get something out of the man before killing him.

-'I have you at my mercy and with your wand in my possession,' He patted his breast pocket. 'Our lord will have no trouble taking over.'

Harry raised his eyebrows.

-'Why would my wand help him?' He prepared in case Malfoy got that he had no idea what the man was talking about.

-'I take Dumbledore never clued you in on the brother wands then,' He smirked in triumph. 'Then you die ignorant. _Avada Kedavra_!'

The green flash was coming his way when he blinked.

-'I guess I'll have to ask the old fool myself then.' Harry said quietly from a few feet behind Malfoy.

He cast another barrage into the man's back.

He was satisfied to see the man stay down as he slid into the wall.

Ready to cast another spell Harry slowly walked towards the prone man.

When he was sure Malfoy was truly unconscious he turned him over.

He didn't have to search beyond the obviously bulging pocket for his wand.

As he equipped it he felt the boost in his mental faculty.

-'Thank you Malfoy... ses?' He just remembered that he had the Malfoy line at his mercy at the moment.

Of course Dumbledore would demand that they simply be handed over to the authorities.

He would insist that they be spared since they had been vanquished.

That had worked great for Arthas too.

No.

It was long past time that they be taken out of the picture, both of them.

As he pulled them both together Harry realized that he hadn't looted them yet.

He was pulling the Malfoy signet ring of his finger when he realized that in the real world nobody ever looted the bodies of fallen enemies.

Oh well, might as well start a new tradition.

With both wands in his pack and the signet ring stowed away he considered how to best go about it.

The obvious cutting the throat was messy plus there was no proof that Tom wouldn't be able to bring some form of them back.

Completely destroying the body was really the only option from here.

Pulling up his engineering manual he looked through the explosives for the most powerful he knew how to make.

Global Thermal Sapper Charge.

Very well.

It was going to be a small nuclear strike in this enclosed space but it would guarantee that neither Malfoy would come back.

Setting two charges next to each other Harry made sure that they would only trigger once he was out of the mansion.

Calling his hog back he rode out of the place.

At the door the security guard or whatever he was was still recovering.

-'Here's your wand,' Harry put it down next to him without dismounting. 'You might want to get the hell out though, it's going to get mighty hot around here pretty soon.' Without a backward glance he rode down the stairs and to the gate.

He was passing over the bent piece of metal when he saw the welcoming committee waiting for him on the other side.

It seemed that everyone of his little group from the ministry was there with one addition.

The headmaster stood behind them with a disapproving stare.

He was not taking his eyes away from the form on the racketing motorcycle as he passed through the stricken gates of Malfoy Manor.

He stopped in front of them and sent the hog back.

Hermione and Remus spoke over each other.

-'Oh Gods Harry, are you all right?'

-'That wasn't Sirius' bike was it?'

Giving a thumbs up and a smile to Hermione he answered Remus.

-'No, I built it myself.' He grinned ear to ear. 'It even has a sidecar if you ever want a ride.'

-'Mr Potter what have you done?' Dumbledore was not even trying to hide the anger in his voice as he strode forward.

As Harry turned to face him he was shocked to realize that his new form gave him eye level with the old man.

-'I retrieved my stolen wand Albus.' It was more then the frost armor and the cold weave of his clothing that put icicles on his words.

-'After what happened in June how could you take such a risk?' Dumbledore aborted a gesture towards Harry's shoulder when he realized the size of the pads there.

-'Interesting that you mention it Albus,' He took out his wand. 'I just had a small chat with the elder Malfoy.'

The wand looked enough like a dagger that Dumbledore actually took a step back.

-'He told me that Tom wanted it for a brother wand effect,' He advanced towards the retreating headmaster. 'But when I pressed him for details he said to ask you.' He pressed the sharp tip of his wand against the older mans chest.

-'What has happened to Messrs Malfoy?' Dumbledore looked uncomfortable as he changed the subject.

Harry smirked and clicked his fingers.

The puzzled looks around him were wiped out by shock as the south wing of the manor behind him erupted in a mushroom cloud.

-'No longer a factor.' He put his wand away and turned from Dumbledore. 'Shall we go guys?'

Tonks was the one to answer.

-'I realize coming from me it's a bit strange but shouldn't we wait for the aurors?'

-'Why? They're dead. No question about it. The only reason to wait would be so they can be sure it was me and try to arrest me, they can do that without me.' He half turned his head. 'I'm sure Albus will do as usual and let them defame me, at least this time they'll be right.'

-'Actually they stole your wand Harry, you can claim justified retribution against them.' Ron chimed in.

-'Really?' Harry turned to his friend.

-'Oh yeah, wands are sacred of course so stealing yours pretty much gives you carte blanche to get it back.'

-'I didn't know that.' Harry smiled under the hood. 'Come one let's go home.' He unleashed the energies and let the portal to Grimmauld place materialize in front of him.

As everyone took a step back Harry laughed.

-'It's not dangerous or anything, just touch it.' He gestured at Hermione.

-'Are you sure?' She lifted her hand tentatively.

-'Of course.' He pushed her gently.

As she stumbled her hand touched the bubble hanging in the air and she was whisked away.

-'Here we go.' Ron grinned as he touched it in turn.

When Remus and Tonks had disappeared Dumbledore stepped forward.

-'Make your own way old man.' Harry barked out as the man's hand passed through the bubble without effect. Putting his own forward Harry disappeared.


	23. Chapter 23

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>When Ron and Hermione stepped into the living room they were shocked by the sight that greeted them.<p>

Harry was sitting in one of the armchairs with his feet towards the fire.

What surprised them was the floating table next to him.

It was semi transparent and was laden with bottles and fruits.

-'Help yourselves.' Harry gestured with the piece of pastry he held.

-'What are those Harry?' Hermione cautiously circled the magical construct.

-'They're mana strudels, eating them refreshes both your magical energy and heals you.' It was Remus who answered from the other chair.

-'Is it ok for us to eat?' Ron was already reaching as he asked.

-'Actually I conjured this specifically for you guys.' Harry leaned forward as he finished his pastry. 'It's a good way to test something.'

-'Test what? Hermione looked at him suspiciously.

As she spoke Ron groaned.

He had touched the fruit tray and in a small flash almost 20 muffins had appeared in his pockets.

As Harry nodded at him he took a cautious bite of one.

There was no flash of magic or any other supernatural effect.

Ron simply grinned at the taste of the food and finishing his first he grabbed another and started munching.

-'Is that it?' She eyed the munching boy with curiosity.

-'Pretty much Hermione, There's no trick or anything I just want to know what you conjure.' Harry stood up.

Still cautious Hermione extended her hand.

The brief flash of light startled her even though she had been expecting it.

The small lumps in the front pocket of her jumper bulged.

-'Loaves of bread?' She pulled one out cautiously. 'And I only got two of them.'

-'Yes, that means that you're level 12 and Ron is only level 10.' Remus answered. 'Mine was two loaves of something called Pumpernickel, it means that I've gone all the way to level 32.'

-'I just needed to know in case something happens.' He looked at Hermione. 'You don't have to eat it, if you put it down away from your body it just disappears.' He turned to Ron. 'Tell me more about this retribution thing.'

Ron looked barely disappointed at the thought that he had such a low level.

-'Well you know how important your wand is right?' he sat on the couch and started unloading his pockets. 'Cuz of your magic and its connection to you and everything,' He finished letting the last muffin disappear and dusted his hands. 'If another wizard or witch steals your wand then you can pretty much do anything to them until you get it back,' He scooted a little to let Hermione sit. 'And if you kill them in the process then you can claim retribution from their estate.'

Harry started pacing in front of the fireplace.

-'Listen mate I understand how you must feel,' Ron looked anxiously at his friend. 'It couldn't have been easy to just off the two ferrets like that. I even think it's kinda sad that you had to do it but I also get the necessity of it.'

-'Necessity?' Remus turned to Ron.

-'Well yeah, Harry knows that there was no way they were going to become good guys and it's not like Azkaban's ever been any use at keeping those guys so what was the alternative.'

Harry stopped his pacing and looked at his best friend.

That was just it. It had been a necessity to get rid of both of them and even though it was regrettable that it had come to this the fault was entirely on the two death eaters for doing what they did.

-'Thanks Ron.' He said quietly.

-'Anytime mate.' Ron nodded. 'So you wanna swing by Gringotts before it closes?'

With barely a swish of clothing Harry was wearing the clothes he had worn at the ministry.

-'Let's go.'

After retrieving Tonks they made their way to the leaky cauldron.

The alley was still busy when they stepped through the archway.

Using his impressive build Harry carved a path for his friends to the entrance of the bank.

In his sweater and jeans Harry drew more then a few stares from the robed witches and wizards that got out of his way. It was only his drastically altered appearance and apparent age that stopped anyone from suspecting he was the Boy-Who-Lived.

Inside the bank Harry made his way to the first free goblin.

-'Good afternoon, I need to see someone about my account.'

-'Key?' The goblin extended a hand imperiously.

-'Here Harry.' Remus proffered the small golden key.

-'Thank you.' With a deft hand the goblin inserted the key into a small box on his desk. 'This is the key for a certain Harry James Potter, I see here deceased.' He looked up at Harry.

-'Yes, that's actually why I'm here you see. I was declared dead a few weeks ago but as you can see I'm quite well and I would like to clear my accounts.' Harry smiled innocently.

-'Very well, I will see if an account manager can see you.' He pushed down on a button on his desk and said something in gobbledegook.

After a few seconds a few sentences came back from the box.

-'IronHeart will see you now.' He pointed to a door on the far side of the hall. 'Through there and 3rd door on your right.'

-'Thank you sir.' Harry nodded as he turned away.

The corridor was the featureless kind that would not have been out of place in any office in the muggle world.

When Harry knocked at the door the "Enter" came immediately.

-'Good morning ladies and gentleman.' the goblin that greeted them was obviously far older then any of the ones Harry had ever seen. The numerous ones he had talked to in Booty bay and similar had had a smooth skin and green tint that made them seem like teenagers.

This one had one ear clipped short and an eye patch. The lines of age around his eyes and mouth creased as he looked at everyone in turn.

-'Please sit down.' He gestured to the seats in front of the desk as he closed the door behind Tonks.

-'Good morning.'

-'I understand you are here to reverse a death proceeding for one Harry Potter?' IronHeart said as he sat down.

-'That's correct.' Harry replied. 'I was declared dead incorrectly a few weeks back and I'd like to reverse this so that I can access my accounts.'

-'Very well. Do you have any proof as to your identity that would allow us to verify that you are indeed the late Lord Potter?' He opened a drawer and started pulling forms out of it.

-'Yes we do,' Remus chimed in. 'We've just come back from the ministry and we got this.' He proffered the form that Shacklebolt had given them.

-'Very well.' Accepting the paper he started reading it. 'This looks to be in order. Since you had left no will traditionally we would disburse your assets to your remaining relatives. However in this case you have no magical relatives. Because of this we have added it to the estate of your legal guardian, one Sirius Orion Black. We have subsequently received details on his demise and processed his Last Will. This document was fairly straightforward and left everything to one Remus John Lupin.' He nodded at Remus. 'Since he is here it would simply be a matter of transferring the estate back to you and reprocessing the wishes of your guardian.'

-'Do you know what the contingency was for the both of us being alive?' Harry asked.

-'I would have to verify the document but I understand the divide was to be made evenly among any survivors of a specific group. This group consisting of yourself and Mr Lupin it would simply be a matter of dividing what he received in two and allowing you control over your part.'

-'That would be fine Mr IronHeart.' Remus answered.

-'Very well, in this case I will need the both of you to fill those forms and sign at the bottom.' He handed Harry the papers. 'Is there anything else?'

-'Actually there is.' Harry nodded. 'I understand that I need to contact someone here regarding a right of retribution.'

-'Retribution Mr Potter?' The goblin looked puzzled at this change of subject. 'For what and against whom?'

-'For wand theft against the house of Malfoy,' It was Hermione who responded.

She saw the goblins eye go wide at the name.

-'Their both dead now.' She continued in a quiet voice.

-'I see.' he turned back to Harry. 'You did this in an effort to retrieve your stolen wand I take it.' As Harry nodded he continued. 'Very well I'll process the demand through our legal department. Do you have any specific demands of their estate?'

-'Everything.' The Boy-Who-Lived answered calmly.

The goblins eye threatened to drop out of its socket at this.

-'I understand Lord Potter.' He pushed the button on his box and started talking in a torrent of gobbledegook.

It took almost an hour for the torrent of paper and stern goblins and lawyers to ask all the questions they wanted.

Once the paper work had been cleared for Sirius' estate the process of taking over the Malfoy one had gone smoother.

When they finally emerged into the sunset over Diagon Alley Harry was ready to go home. Well Remus' home it turned out since he had refused to take it from the man.

* * *

><p>Harry thought that Hermione would never go to bed.<p>

When they had returned to Grimmauld Place she had started dissecting the things he had done and was still wondering how he could have materialized his bike.

When Ron had asked if any of the other mounts could be done too he had brought all 50 of them out one by one. It turned out that yes it could be done. The rams and horses were received with awe by Ginny and Hermione. The twins had turned green with envy when he had brought out the mechano striders.

It was really the tigers and the bear that had scared everyone. Standing atop them he barely fit inside the living room, even with all the furniture shrunk and moved to the side.

He had held back on the flying creatures. Most of them occupied the same space as the bears but when the claws of his frostsaber had left grooves in the carpet he had worried that the dragons or gryphons might cause even more havoc.

Finally Remus had called a halt and sent everyone to bed, including Harry.

And he couldn't sleep.

It didn't seem to be a lack of tiredness physically or mentally.

He had lain in his bed and tried to relax, close his eyes.

He had tried counting sheep, wiggling his toes, rubbing his stomach even deep breathing.

Nothing had worked.

After a few hours he had gotten out of bed.

It was simpler to just accept the insomnia for now.

The library was two floors down from his room but it had the advantage of not being near any bedrooms.

He had browsed the shelf for almost 15 minutes before he found a book that looked interesting.

It was a discourse on the methods of magic by a man call OffKarta.

Sitting on the couch by the door he had plunged into the book.

It was a little verbose in places but it was a fascinating speculation on the nature of magic and its interaction not only with the mind but with the bodies, specifically with magical creatures.

He was turning to the chapter on bodiless magical beings when he heard the door open.

The opening revealed a head of bushy brown hair sleepily walking in with a huge tome under one arm.

Hermione had obviously been reading rather then sleeping.

She didn't look around as she walked to one of the shelves containing at least another dozen tomes similar to what she was holding.

With a practiced movement she slid what seemed to be tome 3 in place and pulled tome 4 out.

-'Can't sleep?' He said quietly.

Hermione jumped high enough that she looked like she had been propelled by the squeak of terror that hit supersonic levels.

She whirled around at just the wrong time.

She had pulled the tome just enough that it tipped out and with a loud thump landed right behind her.

She once again strangled a scream and whirled the other way.

Harry was glad of his gift of parseltongue. He wasn't sure he would have been able to understand her angry hiss otherwise.

-'Oh Gods Harry! You almost gave me a heart attack.' She put a hand on her chest.

He tried to contain his laughter as he answered.

-'Well? Insomnia or just too curious to sleep?'

-'What?' She turned around to pick up the book. 'No I just woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.' She whispered. She stared at the title of the book in his hands. 'And why are you here and reading this of all things?'

-'I couldn't sleep at all so I came down here.' He looked at the cover of his book. 'It sounded interesting so I picked up. It's fascinating so far.'

-'You couldn't sleep at all?' Hermione asked as she sat next to him. 'When was the last time you slept?' She continued as a thought struck her.

-'Let me see,' He looked up in thought. 'I got sleeped two days ago by a druid.'

-'No Harry, I meant real sleep, as in close your eyes and drift off for a few hours.' She stared at him.

-'I'm not sure.' He stared at the shelves opposite them. 'I think it was the day I got sent to Azeroth. I slept that night.'

-'Almost a month and a half then.' Hermione looked at the tome in her lap thoughtfully.

-'What are you thinking Hermione?'

-'I'm thinking that you might not need to sleep anymore.' She had a grave expression on her face.

-'Not at all?' Harry was less surprised by this then he thought he should have been.

-'Not at all. I think you might still be susceptible to sleep spells or potions but actual sleep sleep, no.'

-'You're thinking the game did this to me and because in game I didn't need sleep I don't here either.' He stated.

As Hermione nodded in agreement he leaned his head back.

-'More time for studying I guess.' He looked at her. 'You should go back to bed, we'll talk about this in the morning.'

Despite his rueful smile Hermione looked worried.

-'Are you sure? I don't mind keeping you company for a bit.'

-'No Hermione I appreciate it I really do but you're falling down, you need to sleep. We'll go over this tomorrow.' He patted her gently on the shoulder.

As she walked out the door Harry turned back to his book. There could be quite a few advantages to not sleeping.

* * *

><p>Harry was reading in the living room downstairs.<p>

This had been his second book since Hermione had come into the library.

There seemed to be no magic at work on his memory and he had not magically learned everything he had read about. Oh well he'd just have to study the old fashioned way.

He was putting the book down when the door opened.

He was going to turn to identify the newcomer when he spoke.

-'Good morning Mr Potter.'

It was Snape.

-'Good morning Severus. What are you doing here at this time of the morning?'

Snape walked into Harry's field of vision before answering.

-'I believe it's high time we had a serious talk.'

The tone of voice was a little higher pitched then he was used to.

-'A talk about what?'

-'A number of things Potter. But I think the one you will want to finish on is how I can help you kill the dark lord.'

Snape said this quietly. As he sat opposite Harry he looked him straight in the eye.

Harry couldn't help the eye widening as the information hit his brain.

-'Yes. I will try and give you as much information as possible on this but first there are quite a few things I think we should lay out on the table.' He stopped.

When Harry nodded at him he continued.

-'First off I would like to apologize for last year.'

-'Which part?' Harry interrupted.

-'All of it but specifically for showing you the dark side of your father.'

-'Very well.' He nodded at the professor to continue.

-'It was a nasty trick and I did it more out of anger then malice. I am sorry for what it wrought.'

-'You're sorry that it killed Sirius?'

-'Yes. I hated the man of course but his passing hurt you in many ways that your mother would hate me for.'

-'My mother?' He tilted his head quizzically.

-'Your mother was a friend.' He saw the unasked question in the boys eyes. 'No Potter, not that kind of friend. Just an occasional lab partner and sometimes someone to bounce thoughts off. The point was that she was like me in at least one way, she loathed people who refused to think.'

-'Refused to think?' He stopped as Snape gave a short laugh.

-'Yes Mr Potter people who could think, who had the brains to come to conclusions themselves but stopped halfway out of laziness, People like Weasley,' He paused. 'And you of course.'

-'Me?' Harry exclaimed.

-'Yes you. Gods. Over the years has it not struck you that most of your various adventures could have been had by a dummy dragged along by Ms Granger?' He raised an eyebrow at Harry's thoughtful look.

The boy was thinking back at the various things that Snape could have known about. It was true that most of them involved more blind luck then reasoning. The best one was of course the triwizard tournament where Crouch pretty much had to walk him through the tasks one by one in order to get him to the end.

-'Exactly,' Severus said as he saw the dawning thought break through. 'If Lily had been here she would have smacked you alongside the head in first year until you started thinking things through.' He smiled ruefully. 'She did it to me enough times. At first I saw your father in you and loathed you for it but it was obvious that you were anything but your fathers son. You were Lily reincarnated with James' laziness added in.' He glared for a second. 'So when I finally got over this I saw your failings for what they truly were.'

-'A refusal to think things through?' Harry interjected thoughtfully.

-'Not refusal, just lack of drive. Even under the pressure of the tournament you simply followed Ms Grangers lead.' As Harry nodded in acknowledgment he continued. 'I cannot change the past Potter but I can try to make a better future.'

-'And how do you want to do that?'

-'I'm not going to start being friendly with you of course but I think we can work to our mutual advantage.' Snape said seriously.

-'Kill Tom?'

-'Kill Tom.' He nodded. 'I am not sorry for my feelings but I am sorry about the way I expressed them.'

-'Apology accepted with the caveats Mr Snape.' Harry sat straighter. 'Now what?'

-'Now I explain what I mean by killing the dark lord.' Snape sat up. 'He used a dark ritual to break his soul and then anchored it to earthly objects. This means that whenever he dies the last fragment that contains his essence is held on this plane. Destroying the objects will loose those fragments and then when he is killed he can pass on.'

-'It sounds pretty straightforward actually, what's the catch?' Harry narrowed his eyes.

-'There are a great many catches Mr Potter. The first and most obvious is that since I obtained this from our illustrious headmaster I don't know what the items are nor where they are.'

-'That makes sense.' He stared in the middle distance. 'The second would be that when I start destroying them he'll be notified and I'll only have a short window to destroy the others.'

-'Precisely.' The slight upward movement indicated the ghost of a smile. 'And of course the last one is that those things will be heavily guarded.'

-'How heavily are we talking? Sorcerer stone or Gringotts?' Harry stared directly at the older man.

-'One of them is right now guarded by a set of house wards, thirty death eaters and a giant snake.'

-'That's very precise. I presume the snake is Nagini. Is it also the anchor?'

-'Yes and yes. Now it is very possible that in,' He looked at his watch. 'two hours, most of those will be going on a terror raid on an ingredient plantation. This shouldn't take more then an hour.'

Harry raised an eyebrow. When Snape looked at him serenely he smiled.

-'I see. Now all I need is the location of this house.'

Snape detailed the location. It was a small hunting lodge for the Notts on the outskirts of Chelmsford.

-'There's a small problem Mr Snape,' He said. 'I can't get there in two hours. Even by dragon it'll be at least a three hour flight.'

-'And I can't make you a portkey. Don't you know how to apparate already?' Severus looked concerned.

-'No, I've never been taught.'

-'Mmmph. Well we'll have to find another way this once but I would strongly suggest using your new discovered intellectual capacity and learning the skill.' Snape looked at the table next to them for a moment before continuing. 'I will give you my own portkey and apparate there.' He fetched a small handkerchief out of his pocket. 'It was identified as belonging to me so be so kind as to destroy it once you've used it.'

Harry grabbed the cloth.

-'I will. Anything else I should know before I go in?'

-'Yes, MacNair will be there and he is founder of his axe then his wand don't be fooled.'

-'Very well Mr Snape. I'll see you when this is all done.' He extended is hand.

Snape looked at it for a minute before shaking it.

-'Good luck Mr Potter.'


	24. Chapter 24

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>It had been almost an hour since Snape left when the first person came down.<p>

-'Morning Harry.' Ron said sleepily.

-'Morning Ron, how was your night?' Harry put the book he had been reading down.

-'Mmmh.' Ron sat down heavily. 'Short. You already got breakfast?' He looked at the empty table.

-'I'm good.' He stared up toward the ceiling. 'Does everyone wake up around the same time?'

-'Yeah just about. Mum usually gets up first to make breakfast but Ginny sometimes beats her to it.' Ron stood up. 'Remus is last after the full moon.' He moved towards the ice box in the corner.

-'Gotcha. Say Ron, how hard is it to learn to apparate?' The boy who lived asked innocently.

-'Mmmh? Uh, Dunno bout a week I reckon.' He looked up thoughtfully. 'I know Charlie took an intense class just before he left for Romania.' He put the bag of hash browns by the stove and turned to Harry. 'Wait a minute. You know already, I saw you!'

-'I actually don't Ron. I know how to teleport and open portals to a specific location but I don't know how to apparate anywhere.' He replied with a grin.

-'Bah, I'm sure it's pretty much the same thing. Just talk to Hermione. She'll know how.' Ron turned back to the skillet.

-'Talk to me about what?' The question came from the door to the kitchen.

-'Hey 'Mione. Harry wants to learn to apparate.' Ron kept stirring his breakfast but added a second helping.

-'Don't you already know how Harry?' She sat next to him as she asked.

-'Not really. Like I was saying, I know how to teleport to a specific predetermined spot but I don't know how to apparate to somewhere I think of.' He nodded towards his red haired friend. 'Ron said you might know the theory and you could show me. If the two are similar enough I might be able to use my knowledge to learn faster and that would give me an edge.'

-'Oh, of course. Sure I'll help you. No problem.' She nodded her head vigorously.

-'Help you with what Harry?' Remus asked as he walked in. His werewolf friend was dressed already and seemed to be ready to take the day by the tail.

-'Apparating Remus.' Hermione replied.

-'But don't you already …?' The question was interrupted by a bout of laughter from Ron. Turning his head Remus looked quizzically at the boy. 'What's so funny?'

-'Yeah little brother,'

-'What's got you laughing when...'

-'We haven't entered the room yet?'

Fred and George seesawed messily as they followed a few crucial seconds behind the older man.

-'I'd like to learn to apparate.' Harry answered with a crooked smile.

-'But don't you already know...'

-'How to apparate Harry?'

Ron stepped away from the range and doubled over.

Hermione glared at her red haired friend.

-'It really isn't that funny Ron. It's an honest question.'

When Ron finally subsided he waved his hand.

-'You had to be there 'Mione.' He turned to Harry. 'I guess the answer is yes.'

-'To apparate you fix a coordinate or picture of where you are trying to go firmly in your mind.' Hermione started explaining. 'Then when you have it you use your magic to push your body to it.'

-'The reason it takes lots of practice Harry is that you have to remember to push your entire body or you risk splinching.' Remus added.

-'It's not a question of power but...'

-'Of clear mindedness and concentration.'

-'The more aware you are of...'

-'Your body and the destination...'

-'The less you risk forgetting …'

-'a bit of yourself behind.'

Harry looked down. This all made perfect sense. Especially when he realized that this was the same as his blink spell. The difference seemed to be that blink was unfocused and simply pushed forward for a bit. He just needed to add a destination.

The room was quiet with the exception of the frying potatoes. Everyone was staring at him intently.

Harry concentrated on the differences in the spell. Thinking of the most familiar place he knew he unleashed the mana necessary.

With a quiet flash of light Harry disappeared from Grimmauld place.

* * *

><p>It would have been perfect if he had remembered a small fact.<p>

-'You'd think after 5 years of constant reminders I'd remember you can apparate or dissapparate here.'

Harry was currently floating slowly down from about a hundred feet up.

The apparition had worked perfectly with only a slight problem.

He had been stopped at the edge of the wards to Hogwarts.

Since he had been going on a direct line to the Gryffindor common room this meant he was about 200 feet up when he stopped.

Luckily he had had the slow fall spell.

-'Ok, apparition take 2.' He said as his feet finally touched the ground.

This time he concentrated on another place he knew very well.

Just one that he was sure did not have anti apparition wards.

With another quiet burst of light he disappeared from the gates of is school.

* * *

><p>The scene that greeted him as he walked into the kitchen was eerily familiar.<p>

Ron had obviously finished cooking his breakfast and let his mother take over for everyone else.

Hermione seemed distraught though less than the last time he had magically reappeared.

Remus was the first to get to him this time.

-'Are you alright?' He squeezed Harry's shoulder as he asked.

-'I'm fine Remus.' he patted the mans arm. 'It turns out that Hermione was right all along.'

-'Right about what?' She stopped her scrutinizing.

-'You can't apparate...' He was cut off by the twins as they finished the sentence in chorus.

-'or dissapparate inside Hogwarts!'

Hermione blushed a deep crimson.

-'That. Anyway I tried and it stopped me so I tried somewhere without wards and it turns out it's a terrible idea to come out of thin air in the middle of the Muggle suburbs right as most people are leaving for work.'

-'You went to Privet drive?' Ginny asked incredulously.

-'Yup.' He grinned at her. 'Let's just say uncle Vernon will have a few questions to answer.' he hugged Hermione suddenly. 'Thank you for the lesson. That was exactly what I needed.'

-'You're welcome Harry.' She answered quietly.

-'So what's the plan for today Harry?' Fred asked.

-'What time is it?' The boy who lived asked suddenly.

-'It's almost 10 dear.' Molly answered.

-'Oh gods, I gotta go.' he gently pushed Hermione back before pulling the handkerchief out.

-'Wait.' Ron exclaimed. 'Where are you going?'

-'It's the first step to killing Tom Ron.' He held the handkerchief tightly as the seconds ticked by. 'I'll be fine. Just asked Snape when he comes around.' As he said it he felt the tug of the portkey.

* * *

><p>The problem with my invisibility spell, Harry reflected, is that I can't see other people either.<p>

Maybe next time I'll plan this thing rather then just appear there.

Obviously Snape had overestimated the preparedness of his fellow death munchers.

The portkey point had been cleared when he had arrived but Harry had barely had time to hide before almost 30 DE's trouped into the small room.

It was of course tempting to blink in the middle of them and start casting crowd control spells as fast as he could but no matter his power, 30 people at the same time casting spells could end up nasty.

He was still debating the pros and cons 10 minutes later when they finally all broke off into groups and disappeared.

The house was quiet all of a sudden.

With a cautious step Harry made his way across the room.

The door wasn't locked and with a brief peek he saw that the corridor beyond was just as empty.

The last time he had hunted for a snake he had listened for the hiss.

As he walked slowly down the corridor he thought this would be a good way to go.

Harry had only a dozen feet to go before he came to stairs leading up.

Taking them one at a time he emerged into what looked like an entry hall with a set of stairs going to the upper floors above his head.

He was about to to turn when he heard the footsteps coming down the steps above his head.

Crouching in the shadow he watched as two wizards turned and headed for a door at the far end.

The problem was that he was in the way.

Both men must have expected trouble because they both whipped out their wands in unison.

They were starting incantations when Harry let loose.

Normally he would have used an arcane blast and soaked up damage. Unfortunately for those two he now knew that the number of people above level 50 in the real world was probably 3.

And those three were Dumbledore, Tom and himself.

He unleashed an arcane explosion.

Harry watched with satisfaction as both men seemed to be hit with a wall.

They both slumped down on top of each other.

It was now that they were out that Harry realized that they might not have been death eaters.

He almost laughed at the idea. If they weren't then they were imperioused and that was sad but he had other things on his mind.

He quickly patted down both bodies. They had only a few things besides their wand but nothing of interest.

Dropping back the odds and ends he had found Harry turned back to the door they were making for.

It was open as he slowly turned the handle.

There was no hissing sound coming from behind it but for all he knew Nagini was asleep.

The door lead into what must have been a living room at some point.

The furniture had been stacked haphazardly on the far wall.

Couches were sitting atop what looked like a well made coffee table.

The room appeared empty.

Closing the door quietly Harry turned back to the stairs.

They hadn't creaked when his first two opponents had come down so he was a little swifter making his way up to the second floor.

The landing opened into a short corridor going to either side.

There were only two or three doors on each side.

No stairs going further up.

Nagini had to be somewhere on this floor Harry thought.

Going left he tiptoed to the first door.

Pressing his ear against he listened for any sign of occupancy.

After a minute of perfect quiet Harry slowly eased the handle down and pushed the door open just a crack.

It seemed to be a bedroom.

Besides the bed and a dresser it was a devoid of life.

Closing the door he turned to the next door down the corridor.

-'What are _you_ doing here?' The voice came the other side of the landing.

-'Drat!' Harry exclaimed as he spun round.

With a swish of his wand MacNair sent a yellow spell flying towards him.

Harry ducked just enough to let it fly above his head.

As he prepared an arcane blast the door beyond MacNair burst open.

Two more men in black robes emerged with questioning looks.

By the time they had recovered from their shock the first counter spell flew out of Harry's cupped hands.

Three spells passed each other on the landing.

The blue jet of light from Harry's hand dwarfing the orange and greens of the others.

Flattening himself on the wall he let the orange spell pass by.

The green one had obviously been mis-aimed as it splashed harmlessly on the door to Harry's left.

Unfortunately the other one had been a better shot and it slapped him with heat even through the mage armor.

Harry grinned as MacNair slumped like a bag of gravel.

The victory was short lived as the orange spell, obviously some form of explosive hex, Blasted the door behind him to shards.

The armor he wore absorbed the worst of the impact but he was still staggered forward.

It turned out to be a fortuitous stumble as a red hex followed the green one.

He felt the reflected heat as it brushed less than an inch from his cheek.

An arcane barrage burst forth and he stayed on one knee to avoid canceling the channeling.

Mr Green spells seemed to deflate at the chest as the missiles impacted with his ribs.

The fourth group hit and the man folded around his stomach with a vacant stare.

The third man didn't seem to realize he was fighting alone as he prepared another curse.

With a thought Harry sent a fire blast before the idiot could complete his casting.

The flame burst around him but obviously weren't enough as his opponent completed a sickly pink curse that sped towards him.

Harry was about to blink forward to finish the man when something hit him from behind.

It felt like Hagrid had just kicked him in the small of the back.

Flying forward he impacted painfully with the concussion hex coming the other way.

Feeling like a ping pong ball Harry felt his feet start going up as his torso was pushed painfully back by the hex.

He ended up lying flat on the ground almost six feet forward from where he had been standing.

He was trying to relearn how to breath as what hit him came into view.

Nagini had obviously grown since the last time he'd seen her.

Her head was level with his as she reared above him.

A thump made both of them look toward the other end of the corridor.\

Obviously the death eater had been lucky to survive the blast but he couldn't survive the burns inflicted by it.

He had just collapsed forward with a groan of pain.

Seizing the distraction Harry blinked forward.

He transition from prone to vertical was not an improvement on his breathing as he tried to spin around.

Nagini had recovered from his brusk disappearance and was turning to him as he put his hand in the position to cast a spell.

By sheer reflex Harry managed to cast an explosion as the car sized animal darted towards him all fangs exposed.

It obviously had an impact as Nagini closed her eyes but not enough to stop the snake from sinking her fangs in Harry's outstretched arm.

The armor had lessened the impact but couldn't prevent the fangs from getting through.

With a heave Harry brought out his dagger and plunged it into the things head.

It went in like butter and seemed to do some damage as the snake let go.

Harry's arm burned as he let the dagger go back to his bag ad brought forth the wand he had gotten in Azeroth.

Using the same hole he had made with the dagger he plunged the wicked looking wand into the snakes skull and let the blast of frost hit.

He couldn't help the grin as bits of snake rained around him.

Harry was smiling at his victory as the trashing body of the animal hit him into the door behind.

Sliding against it in agony he realized that the poison had an effect.

It had burned down his arm and as it burned he lost all sensation in the arm.

He was reaching for a potion when he felt it hit his already damaged ribs.

With a scream of agony he sensed his heart stop beating.


	25. Chapter 25

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>There was no "Release spirit?" prompt this time.<p>

He looked down as his body quietly slumped next to Nagini.

He was about to shout in anger when he saw the unraveling thread from Nagini's body.

It seemed to go north and west towards London.

It was the silver of a patronus or a memory from the pensieve in his black and white death vision.

With a thought Harry floated to the thread and as it was about to snap grabbed a hold of it.

It felt like a Wronski feint as he was suddenly dragged up and out over the air.

The thread was obviously being retracted to wherever it originated as Harry was dragged along.

It was almost like a portkey that he flew above London and started descending into what looked like a manor in west Cambridge.

Harry was still holding on to it when the thread snapped into the head of Voldemort.

Even with all his powers Harry couldn't help but stop short in front of the inhuman monster.

Tom obviously couldn't see him as he sat on his throne.

There were 6 witches and wizards sitting around the table.

Harry was standing immaterial halfway through the table but no one was paying attention.

There seemed to be no sound even though Bellatrix had just opened her mouth.

-'Well Damn, that would have been a good spying method.' Harry said dejectedly.

He slapped his hands over his mouth to try to catch the words back.

He stood still for a minute in the hopes that they hadn't heard him.

When it was obvious that the silence went both ways he moved again.

Trying not to touch anyone he gingerly stepped out of the ghostly table.

HE recognized some of the people sitting around as the ones that attacked them at the ministry but most of them were complete strangers.

He was turning back to Tom when he noticed them.

There were four other strings floating from Tom's chest.

Each one was going in a different direction but they all angled more or less sharply from his body towards the north and west.

Could those be the soul shards Hermione had talked about?

Harry stepped slowly forward and extended his hand to the tallest one.

He froze has Tom turned his head in is direction.

If he hadn't been already dead he would have held his breath.

As it was he turned slowly to see a ghostly hand pass through his torso.

Someone had entered the room with a message.

Once Tom had passed his hand through Harry's heart and retrieved it he turned back to the assembled people before him and started speaking.

Steeling himself Harry grabbed a hold of the thread.

The room around him stayed the same but he could see a sort of tunnel o silvery light speeding over England.

It was spinning and speeding ever north until Harry Harry noticed a distinct deja vu to the landscape.

It was the track that the Hogwarts express took.

He was gratified to see the lake then the castle spin into view.

The tunnel seemed to slow down as it stopped on the seventh floor.

The door was not there but the thread seemed to pass through the wall and into a room full of junk and other unnameable things.

The spinning ended as a small headband cam into view.

It was a band of silver with an emerald set in the front a small dangle in white crystal.

In his spirit form it was obvious that his was one of the links that Tom had used to keep himself alive.

Letting go of the thread Harry quickly grabbed hold of the next one.

The trip was quicker and unfamiliar.

It was only when the tunnel descended over a village that Harry was able to judge his location.

This was little hangleton. The manor stood at the end of town but unlike what he expected the thread went into the woods on the other side.

He was trying to memorize the landmarks when they stopped in a clearing.

The shack they entered had obviously not been designed to stand the rigors of time.

He passed through the walls then the floor into a dirt floor basement.

The thread continued into a cauldron at the far end of the room and as Harry watched the gray liquid parted to reveal a small onyx ring.

A diadem, an Onyx ring.

The third thread was a short flight it seemed.

It skimmed over London until Harry noticed that Diagon Alley was coming up. Skimming low over the shops they entered Gringotts through the ceiling and started going down.

Harry gaped when he noticed the shafts that seemed to go directly from the offices down to the vaults.

He turned around just in time to see the vault number flash before him. Vault 362. Good to know he thought.

The vault itself was a simple affair with mostly gold and golden items.

What really drew his attention was of course the goblet sitting on the floor.

The thread attached o it firmly.

A diadem, an Onyx ring, A golden cup.

Time to find out what the last one was.

Harry gripped the last thread with determination.

He was shocked to see the tunnel extend into London proper.

He couldn't stop the look of surprise as he saw Grimmauld Place come into view.

He was just as stumped when he entered the house and stopped on the third floor.

The curio cabinet from last year was still there.

And in it was a locket with a gray S on the cover.

Harry let go of the thread and took a step back.

The arrogance of his enemy was beyond anything he could have imagined. He had actually hidden one of his prized anchors inside the headquarters of his enemies.

And not just in some vault somewhere, no. He had put it on display in the middle of the house.

-'Oh well Tom, I guess you couldn't have seen that one coming.' Harry grinned as he opened his backpack.

The hearthstone was sitting there just like he left it. Still keyed to Dalaran.

With a thought he activated it. In the game he couldn't have since he was dead but it looked like here the rules were just a bit different.

* * *

><p>With a flash Harry found himself in the inn.<p>

The droning of hundreds of players made a reassuring background noise as he turned to the door.

Obviously he was still a ghost here but there were spirit healers in Dalaran.

He started running through the street. There was still time hopefully to get back to the world and warn them.

The hunt itself should be easy. I could teleport … No, apparate, he mentally corrected, to those locations I just saw. Ironically the hardest one will be the Hogwarts one.

He stopped in front of the spirit healer and quickly thought at the flying angel.

With a brief flash of colors he found himself standing back in the colored world.

First repair my armor then go.

Pulling his backpack out of the nether he rode to the armorer near the flight point.

Almost 50 gold coins later he was standing once again in pristine armor.

-'Now the moment of truth.' Harry pulled out his backpack and selected the Dean's laptop item in it.

He grinned as the light coalesced around him and he disappeared again.

* * *

><p>The light disappeared and once again he felt the real air brush over his body.<p>

Harry looked down.

-'At least this time I checked before traveling halfway through England on a dragon.' He chuckled.

Opening his backpack he once again materialized the normal clothing Ron had given him.

Opening his spellbook he used the teleport spell directly to Grimmauld place.

The living room was reasonably crowded as he materialized by the fireplace.

-'Harry!' Mrs Weasley was only beat by a fraction of a second as Hermione exclaimed.

-'Hey guys.' Harry grinned at both women.

-'Where were you?' Ron asked anxiously.

-'Believe it or not I just got killed by Nagini.' He gently pushed Hermione away so he could make his way to the door.

-'What?'

He idly wondered how many people in the room had used magic in their voice to shout this.

-'Snape came here earlier,' He paused to gauge the expressions around him. 'And he told me how Voldemort became immortal.' He made his way to the door. 'It's a bit complex but essentially he made anchors for his soul.' He opened it and gestured for everyone to follow him. 'Those can actually be destroyed and when that happens he can be killed and won't be able to come back.' He made his way up the stairs to where he knew the curio cabinet was. He turned once on the landing to check that everyone was following him with curious faces.

-'But how did you die?' Remus asked from right behind him.

-'Well Professor Snape told me that Nagini was one of those anchors and he also told me how I could get to it.' He opened the room to the room and made a bee line for the curio cabinet.

-'Was it a trap?' Hermione asked suspiciously.

-'What?' He half turned to her. 'Oh no, no it wasn't he warned me of exactly who there would be but Nagini got a bite in before I could finish her so I died from the poison.'

-'I think the …'

-'...question everyone wants ….'

-'...to ask Harry is how ….'

-'... did you manage to ….'

-'... Come back from the dead?'

-'Again.' Ginny added meaningfully.

-'Same as last time actually, I arrived in my spirit form in Dalaran. I just asked a spirit healer to resurrect me.' He carefully opened the cabinet. Right there in front of him was the next piece of that puzzle.

-'And you used Dean's laptop to come back?' Hermione tried to see what he was looking at.

-'Exactly.' He used his sleeve to grab the locket. Closing the door he turned around. 'You'll be happy to know that I arrived naked again so it wasn't a one time thing.'

-'What's that Harry?' Remus stared at the gingerly held locket.

-'Believe it or not Tom actually put a piece of his soul here.' Harry answered grimly.

Ron and his mother took a hurried step back at this.

It was George and Fred's admiring looks that surprised him the most.

-'No way!' They said in unison.

-'Harry, he wouldn't hide a piece of his soul in the middle of his enemies strong...' Hermione trailed off.

-'Of course he would Hermione.' Fred answered.

-'We hate him as much as you do of course,' George continued.

-'But this is exactly like him.'

-'They're right Hermione. As a matter of fact they're even more right then you think since another one's hidden inside Hogwarts.'

-'No way!' Ron exclaimed.

Grinning at the siblings similarity he turned to his best friend.

-'Yup, now we need to destroy this one and then we need to get the others as fast as we can.' He made his was gingerly to the door.

-'Why would we need to hurry Harry?' Mrs Weasley asked from behind Ron and Ginny.

-'Because Voldemort might know what we're up to and try to stop us.' Remus opened the door to let Harry through.

-'You think Snape will have told him?' Ginny asked as she pushed back from the thing in Harry's hand.

-'No, Professor Snape and I have a clear understanding. But we both agree that it's unlikely that he can't sense the fact that pieces of his soul are being destroyed one by one.' He smiled as Remus nodded along with this.

-'So how are you going to destroy this one Harry?'

-'I was thinking of going to the backyard, layering every single protection I know on myself and then hit with arcane blasts and missiles until it's a cloud of slowly expanding atoms.'

-'Sounds like a plan, do you need any help?' Fred asked as he followed him down the stairs.

-'Just be ready to move as soon as we're done with this. There are 3 others and one of them is in Gringotts.' He continued down the stairs as he heard the shocked gasps behind him.

They had managed to catch up to him as he stepped into the small backyard of the property.

The noon light shone down on him as he set the necklace on a handy log roughly in the middle of the yard.

Harry opened his backpack and started putting on his armor.

Once the blue cloth totally encased him he opened his spell book and layered the armors and protections he had learned.

The raised intellect came as a welcome addition. It let his thoughts slide as if on oil casters. He could remember the flight through the upper layers of Gringotts and as he looked at the necklace a plan began to form.


	26. Chapter 26

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>As promised the necklace had been hit with enough fire based magic to turn it into a small puddle of molten gold.<p>

They were making there way down Diagon alley.

Hermione had been horrified when he had told her the plan.

She had come anyway but she had spent quite a bit of time voicing her concerns.0

Remus had clamped a hand on his shoulder an gave him a look. It clearly said that the boy in front of him was the son of his best friend. It also said that he would follow him through hell and back.

Ron had whooped in laughter. He'd then jumped up and gone to get his stuff.

It was Tonks that surprised him.

She looked at Remus before nodding.

He had told her tat this would be very risky to her professionally but she had insisted.

The 5 of them were now making there way directly to the entrance.

The lobby was fairly empty when they walked in.

Harry made his way to the first teller and spoke quietly.

-'Good morning, I need to speak to IronHeart please.'

-'Key please.' The goblin extended his hand.

Harry handed it over and waited as the Goblin pressed it to his slate.

-'Very well Mr Potter, if you'll step through that door over there. It's the 3rd door on your right.'

-'Thank you.' Harry couldn't help the grin as he recalled the spiritual journey earlier.

They knocked at the door and waited.

When they heard the invitation Harry opened the door and waved the others in.

He stood at the back as everyone else took the seats.

-'Good afternoon Mr IronHeart.'

-'Good afternoon Lord Potter, what can I help you with today?'

-'I need your help to kill Voldemort.' Harry grinned as Tonks gasped.

-'Interesting.' The goblin tented his fingers in front of him.

His one eye was focused on Harry much longer then was comfortable.

Harry could see Hermione bouncing back and forth between them.

She was about to speak when Harry put is hand on her shoulder.

It was another half minute before the goblins mouth contorted into a grin.

-What did you have in mind?'

Harry returned the smile.

-'I know that an artifact he used to make himself immortal is right now sitting in the Lestrange's vault beneath our feet.'

-'I see.' The grin faltered. 'I'm sure you understand that even to kill him I cannot let you take anything from one of our client's vaults.'

-'I know.' Harry smiled wider. 'I have no interest in taking out of the vault, I just want to exorcise the magic from it.'

Ron leaned back as all the sharp shark-like teeth suddenly showed.

-'I feel we can do business Lord Potter.'

It was a short walk from the offices to the vault level.

Hermione and Ron had been shocked when Harry had directed further into the offices.

He had been watching for the look of surprise on IronHearts face.

He was gratified when he pointed out the shaft that would get them straight to the vault.

-'May I ask how you knew?' The goblin asked as they made their way down the wide stairs.

-'Don't worry, I got this information in a very unique way. I'm sure no one could duplicate it.'

-'Was it when you were dead?' Ron asked as he stepped onto the third landing.

-'We exit here Ron.' Harry said. 'Yes, I traveled here and there doesn't seem to be any protection against free floating souls.'

-'I see.' Remus nodded. 'I guess it could be possible to protect yourself from it but what's the point.'

-'Apart from you and Tom no one would be able to come back and make use of the info.' Tonks chimed in as she made her way down the vaults.

-'I understand.' IronHeart nodded. 'Which vault was it?'

-'362.' Harry pointed.

The door to the vault was guarded by a large green dragon.

It turned its snout and eyed them wearily as they approached.

-'I can defeat it but I'm not sure you'd want that.' Harry calmly said.

-'I have no doubt Lord Potter but yes there is a simpler way.' IronHeart retrieved what looked like a gray bell from his pocket and started clanking it loudly. At the sound the animal backed away.

-'Well,' Ron exhaled loudly. 'I think I prefer that way.'

Hermione nodded frantically.

-'And now only the door left.' IronHeart said as he stepped forward.

With an expert movement he placed his palm flat against the indentation on the door.

The vault itself was a cavelike opening crammed from floor to ceiling with golden coins and goblets, silver armor, the skins of strange creatures – some with long spines, other with drooping wings – potions in jeweled flasks, and a skull still wearing a crown.

The goblet was standing prominently.

The pedestal was to the right.

-'Here it is Lord Potter but I am not sure what you can do. Any attempt to touch it will unleash the magical protections against you.'

-'Everyone stand back.' Harry stepped forward.

IronHeart gaped as the clothing flowed into the blue and purple robes.

When Harry turned to make sure they were safely back his glowing eyes elicited gasps.

-'And here we go!'

The first blast of fire seemed to fill the cup with bright red flames.

As Harry ramped up the power the lip of the cup opened up like a flower.

As the foot started loosing it's shape Harry prepared a Fireball.

It traveled through the vault throwing bright golden light onto the faces of his friends.

With a muffled clap a white shroud seemed to boil from the pool of molten gold.

Harry turned from the small destruction.

-'That's it.' He grinned. 'Thank you IronHeart.'

-'You're welcome Lord Potter.'

-'Wooh!' Ron shouted in excitement.

-'That's two down?' Tonks asked with a grin.

-'No, three, remember Nagini.' Hermione chimed in as she looked at the pool dripping down the stone pedestal.

-'May I ask how many you have left to go.' Iron heart waved them back as he closed the door.

-'Two.' Harry stared at the dragon as it slowly emerged.

-'If I can help let me know.'

-'I appreciate the offer but the next two are relatively unprotected.' Harry gave a short bark of laughter. 'Even without considering this place.'

Hermione grabbed his shoulder.

She was looking at her feet with a thoughtful frown.

Remus and Ron looked at her concerned as she stopped the procession up the stairs.

Tonks came up and put her hand on the arm that was holding Harry.

-'What is it Hermione?'

-'I think I know how you could help Mr IronHeart.' She looked up at Harry's questioning face.

-'If it is within my power I am sure we can come to an agreement.'

-'Can you get Dumbledore to come here?' She turned to the goblin.

-'I could make an appointment with him of course. With sufficient reason he would come promptly but it would take a few days at least.' IronHeart's face wrinkled in confusion.

-'You're thinking he could serve as a diversion while we go to Hogwarts?' Harry put his hand on hers and tapped it distractedly.

Looking back up at him she nodded enthusiastically.

-'I see. If could manufacture an emergency I could gt him here in a few minutes, maybe an hour, but unless the emergency was real he would leave in a few minutes.'

-'How about that someone broke into a high security vault again and stole an artifact.' Ron chimed in with a grin. 'Even if you just ask him to inspect the vault for magical signature or something it'll be 10 minutes going down, 10 minutes going back up and, if you can milk the dragon encounter, another 10 minutes down here.'

-'You're right! 30 minutes should be more then enough to get into Hogwarts and get to the 7th floor.' Remus slapped him on the back happily.

-'And there I won't need more then a minute or two to destroy it.'

-'It could be done certainly.' The goblin looked at Ron. 'Your idea is perfect but it ill take a few hours to setup.'

Ron's feet almost left the ground from all the praise he was receiving.

-'I can borrow my parent's cell.' Hermione said. 'Could you get someone to call me with when he's going to be here or when he arrives?'

-'Certainly.' IronHeart nodded.

-'It's a plan.' Harry resumed the march up the stairs. 'In the meantime we'll take care of the next artifact.'


	27. Chapter 27

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>Hermione had been loath to explain to her parents what they had been doing at the bank.<p>

It was only when Tonks blurted out something about the dragon being mostly inoffensive that they had stopped asking.

She had been half shocked to realize that Hermione had never bragged to her parents about the bi-yearly encounters with the creatures she had had at school and therefor how scary those had been.

They had given her the mobile and told her to be safe.

The trip to Little Hangleton had been quick and uneventful. Remus and Tonks had been able to side along Ron ad Hermione.

The forest itself held no particular dread in the daylight and they were gently joking around as they approached the remains of the hovel.

-'This is Tom's family home?' Remus exclaimed as the house came into view.

-'This is a house?' Ron echoed as he saw the shack.

-'The shrieking shack was a better house then this.' Harry nodded in agreement. 'The ring is in the basement.'

-'How do we do this?' Ron asked.

-'It's going to be trapped.' Remus added.

-'I think just the state of the house makes it a death trap but Remus is right Harry, it's bound to have magical protections on top of that.' Tonks tried to take a look at the thing without actually moving closer to it.

-'Which is why I'm going to go in alone.' Before they could all protest he continued. 'I'll make sure that all the traps are disarmed and then you guys can come in.'

He could see the stubborn looks on their faces.

It was Ron that stood out.

Rather then being belligerent he looked at him thoughtfully before nodding.

-'Harry you can't …'

-'There's no way …'

-'You've got to be …'

-'He's right.' Ron interrupted the mounting protests.

When everyone was turned toward him he continued.

-'Think about it.' He nodded towards his friend. 'He can't die, we know that. So the worst that could happen is he gets destroyed and he has to wait an hour to come back.' He turned and started walking to the edge of the clearing. 'It's inconvenient yes and I'm sure Harry doesn't enjoy dying.' He sat down against a tree. 'But we'd all be in the way.'

-'But …'

-'No Hermione!' He interrupted her. 'We all WANT to be in there with him but that's just our guts talking.'

-'Thank you Ron.' Harry nodded at him. 'Now I'm going to go in. If I get in trouble I'll set a sapper charge to blow the whole thing up.' He pulled a contraction of metal and odd tubes out of thin air. 'The blast will probably be strong enough to vaporize the house so I strongly suggest you find a tree and hide behind it.'

With that he put the charge back and started making his way to the door.

The shack had survived for the time it had been neglected.

The fact that it was still upright hinted at magic in its construction.

He stopped at the door when he noticed the remnants of the skeleton on it.

Obviously someone had nailed a snake to it.

Time and nature had touched it and now only a few ribs were still woven on the nails.

The rest of the poor creature was heaped at the foot of the door.

Harry cautiously extended his hand.

Pulling gently he opened the door.

There was no explosion or magical trap there.

He grinned and slowly stepped into the hovel.

It was a one room with everything in plain sight.

In the corner he could see he remains of the bed as well as the few sticks of furniture that had been used when people still lived here.

He looked around for anything that would be a trapdoor or a ladder.

The trip Harry had taken when connected to Voldemort had shown him that the the ring was stored on the lower floor.

When no trapdoor seemed to be evident he figured it would be easier to make one.

With another thought he brought forth his backpack.

He had enough to make the smallest explosive he knew how.

Rough dynamite didn't have the kick of most o he other things he'd been taught but hopefully it'd have enough kick to punch through this molded wood.

A few minutes of preparation and he had 3 sticks ready.

Now the stupid thing would be to be in here when they went off.

He stepped back out of the shack with the sticks in his hand.

He found his friends mostly hidden behind thick trees a few dozen yards away.

-'Stay back, I need to make a trapdoor!' He shouted as they started emerging.

He waved the explosives in the air before throwing them into the open door.

With a Blink and a quick dash he was behind one of the trees.

It only took a second for the things to blow with a muffled thump.

He wanted for the splintering noises to die down before poking his head out.

The door had been blown off it's crude hinges and obviously the window on the other side of the hovel hadn't survived the explosion.

The structure itself seemed to be doing ok though.

-'Ok I'm going back in.' He waved at his friends as he blinked back to the stricken door.

The sticks had blown a hole a few yards in diameter near the door.

Before jumping in he cast the slow fall spell on himself and gently glided down the hole.

It was only a 7ft ceiling down there and watching for the broken timber he set foot into the man made cave.

It was obvious as he looked that this place had survive the weather of time much better then the upstairs.

Mostly he suspected it was become the things down here were made of metal.

There were signs of rust of course but mostly the potion equipment had survived.

What worried him was that the fire in the hearth was blazing.

That and the fact that the cauldron that he had seen the ring in was starting to boil over was definitively a bad sign.

One thing to do.

He started with a frost nova.

This was one of the least destructive spells and with the area of effect it would be the most effective.

As the magic left Harry it coated everything around him with ice except the cauldron.

The fire however did diminish a little.

With a thought he started preparing the cone of cold.

It was colder and more focused.

The blast managed to coat the cauldron with thick icicles for a few seconds before the fire melted them.

The bubbles had however stopped coming from the cauldron as the cold took it's toll.

Not wasting any time Harry quickly sent a frostbolt directly at the fire below the cauldron.

With a sharp hiss the flames were extinguished.

Harry grinned.

This had been easy.

Now to survive whatever Murphy was going to throw at him next.

He was cautiously stepping forward when he noticed the wisps of smoke coming from the fire.

They were rising as normal but as they met the ones coming from the cooling cauldron they merged and melted together.

This in itself was not that unusual until he realized that they were merging one to one and keeping the shape they had.

Slowly a herd of smoky snakes was forming in front of him.

-'Thanks Murphy.' He hissed a little miffed.

-'Who disturbs our slumber?'

The question had come from the snakes.

It was in parseltongue.

As Harry watched the 30 odd transparent creatures turned to him.

-'It is I,' He stopped as he wondered whether to try lying. 'Harry.'

The snakes seemed to hold their breath for a second as they pondered his answer.

-'Proceed.' The snakes hissed slowly. 'Touch nothing but the ring.' And as they finished speaking they retreated to hover over the cauldron.

Looked at the quizzically Harry made his way gingerly to the cauldron.

As the snakes still did not attack he stepped all the way forward and peered into the green liquid.

-'Oh well might as well get it over with.'

With a sharp movement he plunged his arm into the cauldron.

The liquid had cooled considerably but it still hissed and bubbled as it hit the frost armor surrounding Harry.

With a jerking motion he grabbed the ring in his gloved fist and pulled his whole arm out.

He had taken two steps back when the residual heat finally passed through the layers of armor and touched his skin.

By then it was merely luke warm.

The snakes were still staring at him as he made his way back to the hole he had dug.

Throwing the ring up first he climbed out of the hole onto the rickety floor.

The ring still lay where it had fallen. It looked innocent against the dust. The black stone did not shine especially brightly nor was the gold very impressive.

Still.

Scooping a piece of fallen wood he hooked the ring onto a finger sized branch and made his way out of the shack.

He saw the heads peering around the tress as he hefted the stick in the air.

-'Stand back I'm going to destroy it out here.' He shouted out to them.

There were a few stones to choose from as he set the stick down.

He made sure the ring was on top before he stepped back almost 10 yards.

The first arcane blast destroyed the stick utterly.

Once freed the ring dropped heavily to the stone beneath it.

As it touched down a flash of magic seemed to seep into the stone.

Before it could do anything else Harry sent another blast at it.

The stone cracked in two as the energy exploded out of it.

With a final surge Harry sent missiles into it.

He was rewarded with the scream of Tom's tortured soul as it was released from the jewel and took flight.

The shards of the ring gently rested on the quickly blackening stone as he turned to the faces of his friends.

Remus was the first one to make his way around a tree.

-'Done?'

-'Almost,' Ron knelt close to the ring. 'Just the last artifact.'

-'So what's the mystery prize Harry?' Tonks asked as she looked over Ron's shoulder.

-'It looked like a tiara.' He looked towards Hermione. 'No calls?'

-'Not yet.' She pulled out the phone. 'I still have some reception here so it's just that they haven't called yet.'

-'It's ok Hermione, I'll just conjure something to chow on while we wait.' Walking a few steps from the smoldering stone he started the conjuration.

As the floating glass table appeared they all reached into it.

Arms loaded for most of them they sat in a rough circle in the summer grass.

-'How does it feel to die Harry?'

The question came as a surprise in the comfortable silence.

Harry turned to Tonks before he answered her.

-'It's less painful then you'd think.' He let his strudel vanish as he put it down. 'The first time I didn't even feel anything,' He lay on his elbows. 'The attack on the train was so surprising it was like a concussion, I blinked and all of a sudden I was in Azeroth.' He changed his clothing to the normal jeans and sweater before laying back fully. 'The second time was a fireball to the torso and that wasn't exactly pleasant but my soul was released before the burning could really become painful.'

-'And with Nagini?' Ron was leaning on his elbow facing him.

-'That was actually a little worse because MacNair got a couple of good shots in so I was already injured.' He stared at the small clouds gently drifting overhead. 'Then she bit me and the poison was like molten lead through my torso.' He turned his head slightly. A bird had decided that this would be a good moment to start chirping. 'It wasn't a cruciatus but in the ball park, then it reached my heart and it stopped everything. I felt a bit scared because I didn't know if I was going to come back this time but the pain was manageable.'

-'Well I've felt the cruciatus before so now I know,' Remus grinned. 'Nothing can be worse.'

They all laughed.

Harry and Remus were grinning at the clouds when the phone rang.

-'Hello.' Hermione nodded into the phone. 'Thank you.'

She looked at Harry and nodded.

With a leap he was on his feet and back in his armor.

-'Let's go.'


	28. Chapter 28

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>The pops of incoming apparition split the air a few feet from the gates of Hogwarts.<p>

Harry immediately checked the surroundings.

There had been not a pip from Tom so far but he had been in enough dungeons to know that it was only when you got the last stake out that the boss really got mad.

Hermione and Tonks had there wands out and were staring determinedly at the castle.

He could see that Hermione was gearing up for what she hoped was the final fight.

Remus and Ron simply looked up to him.

They seemed calm and confident.

Harry nodded at the both of them and started towards the castle.

They were in view of the entrance doors when they swung inward.

Harry simply let his wand appear in his hand.

When the doors had finished swinging a form in black robes stepped out.

Snape took three steps down and stopped.

He stared at the advancing party with his usual look.

When Harry finally came within earshot he spoke up.

-'Good afternoon Mr Potter.'

-'Good afternoon Professor Snape, I see you managed your morning activities unscathed.'

-'I did indeed Mr Potter.' He narrowed his eyes the tiniest fraction. 'I was however given to understand that despite your success in the mission I offered you, you had however perished.'

-'Yeah he died but then again, he's not the boy who lived for nothing.' Ron grinned.

Snape turned to the redhead for only a second.

-'It would certainly explain why the bones that were recovered dissolved after a time.'

Harry grinned in remembrance.

-'They'll do that.' He nodded at Severus. 'With your help I got all the other items with one exception.'

Snape scrutinized him for a few seconds.

Reaching a conclusion he half turned and gestured for Harry to precede him.

-'Lead the way Mr Potter, the headmaster, as I am sure you are aware, was called to Gringotts to investigate your handy work.'

-'How did you know it was us?' Tonks exclaimed.

Snape and Harry turned in unison.

They both raised an eyebrow at her before turning back to the stairs.

-'Who else could it have been Tonks?' Harry asked.

-'It couldn't have been Tom or he would have known.' Remus said as he followed her up the stairs.

-'It wasn't Dumbledore since he didn't know about it until Gringotts called.' Ron continued as they reached the landing.

-'So all that's left is me.' Harry nodded at Snape as they passed the third floor.

-'But how do you know that the last artifact is here?'

-'I was the one who impressed on Mr Potter the urgency of the matter once Nagini had been disposed of.' He stopped on the 4th floor to let the others catch up. 'There for I trusted him to make all possible haste to all the artifacts once he had divined their nature and location.' He started right behind Harry on the steps to the fifth floor. 'Once he told me there was one left I simply assumed it was here,' He glanced dismissively at Tonks' stunned expression.

-'But it doesn't shock you that he would have put his precious pieces of his soul in the middle of Hogwarts?' Hermione asked a little suspiciously.

-'I have met the man Ms Granger, I would not put anything past him. As a matter of fact I am surprised that Dumbledore did not check his office the first time he heard about those items.'

-'It's not in the headmaster's office.' Ron replied a tad smugly.

-'What?' Snape stopped abruptly. He stared at Ron as everyone around them slowly stopped their ascension.

-'It's not in the headmaster's office Professor, it's in the room of requirements.' Harry corrected.

-'I see. I overestimated his arrogance it seems.' Snape shook his head as he resumed the climb.

-'No you didn't Severus, he had put one of them in a curio cabinet in Grimmauld Place.' Remus chuckled.

Snape actually looked stunned at this.

The seventh floor was empty as they stepped onto the landing.

Hermione led the way to the tapestry and stared at the wall.

-'You said it was a tiara?'

-'Yes Hermione, a tiara.' Harry stepped back to give her room. 'It looks like silver wings with diamonds along the top and a big emerald in the center.'

Hermione nodded as started pacing back and forth in front of the tapestry.

As she completed the three circuits the door appeared on the opposite side.

Ron bounded forward and held the door open.

Hermione nodded at him as she stepped forward. Tonks and Remus followed her. Snape gestured for Harry to precede him and nodded at Ron as he entered.

The room looked nothing like Harry's vision.

It was lined with books and crystal balls.

In the center stood a shallow basin with several bottles of ink.

Hermione was standing at the far end examining a pack of tarot cards.

-'No tiara.' Tonks said.

-'This isn't the right room.' Harry nodded in agreement.

-'But it should be, this is the room of requirements.' Hermione contradicted.

-'That it may be Ms Granger but like all magic it requires precision.' Snape turned from the shelf he had been examining. 'What did you require?'

-'I was trying to find the tiara.' She answered downcast.

Harry patted her on the shoulder.

-'It was an honest mistake Hermione don't worry, we'll just try again.'

-'But we have to find the room Voldemort hid the thing in.' Ron replied a little high pitched. 'That could take hours!'

-'No Ron, we just need to think like him.' Remus answered in his best professor tone.

He smiled as all the teenagers suck their tongues out in distaste.

-'Actually he's right.' Harry nodded.

Snape nodded at him as he held the door open.

-'So what was he thinking then?'

-'He was trying to hide it!' Tonks exclaimed.

Harry and Severus nodded at this idea.

-'That sounds right Tonks.' Remus agreed.

Ron stepped forward as the door vanished and started pacing.

He had a look of intense concentration as he completed the third circuit.

When the door reappeared he bounded forward and held the door open.

The group filed in one by one and stopped a few feet from the door.

The room was huge. At the least the size of the main hall in IronForge.

It was packed all around with sliding piles of things. Everything from torn cloaks to half melted cauldrons and even what looked like the corpse of a Quintaped in the far corner.

As Harry stepped forward to start searching looking he heard Snape.

-'Would this be it Mr Potter?' He was moving toward a broken cabinet laying on its side.

On top of it Harry could see the tiara lying innocently.

-'Don't touch it!' Hermione shouted.

Snape froze with his hand a few inches from the gleaming artifact.

-'Sorry for shouting professor but it's dangerous to touch them if they don't belong to you.'

-'Even with gloves?' He asked as he pulled his arm back.

-'Gloves are OK.' Harry answered as he picked what looked like the splinters of a broomstick. 'I grabbed the ring with my gloved fist but I did have a number of protection spells on.' Gently he trapped the tiara between the two pieces of wood.

-'I see.' Snape opened the door to let him through. 'And for the destruction?'

-'Hit it with enough magical blasts until it's a slowly expanding cloud of atoms?' Hermione chimed in with a grin.

Harry turned his head to give her a big smile.

Ron laughed at the expression on Snape's face.

-'What did you think we were going to do Severus?'

Snape looked abashed as he mumbled.

-'Of course that would be the obvious way.'

The trip to the entrance hall was done in eerie silence as the empty school seemed to hold its breath.

This was it.

The last piece of Tom Riddle's soul that anchored him to this plane of existence.

The doors to the entrance hall opened with a small sigh.

Harry stepped through into the dying sunlight.

Looking around he made his way toward the great lake.

There were a number of small boulders on its periphery that would be perfect.

-'Stop there professor.' Ron spoke quietly but firmly.

Snape turned around to see that the rest of the group was standing some 30 yards away.

With a look towards the still advancing Harry he retreated.

-'Flying shrapnel?'

Tonks and Remus nodded.

He turned back to see that Harry had put the tiara on a protruding stone and had stepped back.

He started by casting a few spells on himself then when the light show stopped he turned to the innocent looking piece of jewelery.

He took a stance akin to a baseball player and seemed to concentrate for a few seconds.

There was no trail of light to indicate that a spell traveled the distance but to Snape's surprise a large explosion took place around the emerald.

Harry didn't wait for the arcane energy to dissipate. He immediately took up his stance again and started gathering energy.

Another blast centered around the emerald.

From this distance it was hard to be sure but it seemed that the emerald fractured.

Another blast came a few seconds later and this time the fracture of the emerald rang across the waterfront.

The next blast seemed to crumple the silver wings onto themselves.

Harry shifted his stance and extended a hand to the stone.

With a sudden flare of energy four missiles exploded from his outstretched hand and slammed into the shrinking mass of silver. Before the flash could dissipate another set of missiles flew true. And another and another.

The four sets of missiles seemed to turn the tiara into little more then a few shards of silver.

With a last effort Harry cast a fireball into the mess.

Severus had to turn his eyes as the flash of light melted the crumpled mess and a healthy slice of the stone it was standing on.

He turned back with a start as the keening started.

It appropriately sounded like a tortured soul.

The gray mist mingled with the smoke coming from the scorched artifact and gently dissolved.

They were stunned to see Harry fall backwards.

Hermione was the first to rush to his side.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the grin on his face below the hood.

Kneeling by his side she punched him as hard as she could in the shoulder.

That only provoked him to laugh as hard as she had ever heard.

The others reached him as he seemed to pulse into his normal clothing.

Raising his head a bit he slid an arm under it and grinned.

-'We're done.'

Ron looked at him in incomprehension.

-'We still have to kill the guy Harry.'

-'Yes we do Ron but now he can't come back.' It was Remus who answered.

Harry and Remus grinned at each other.

-'Now to provoke him into a confrontation.' Harry mused.

-'Mr Potter what have you done?' Dumbledore shouted furiously as he strode forward.


	29. Chapter 29

I do not own Harry Potter or any related characters or storylines.

I do not own anything of the World of Warcraft or related properties owned by Blizzard.

The idea came from a plot bunny posted by Bobmin and Alyx so thank you to them too.

* * *

><p>-'Good afternoon Headmaster.' Harry tilted his head back. Even lying on the ground he had a good view of the fuming headmaster as he strode purposefully towards them.<p>

Dumbledore seemed to do a double take when he saw Remus and Severus standing there with grins on their faces.

Hermione seemed torn between being reprimanded by an authority figure and the exultation of what they had done.

-'I just destroyed one of Voldemort's anchors.' Harry put his hand on Hermione's knee when she opened her mouth to correct him.

Dumbledore stopped. He turned to the still smoking stone on the other side of the group.

-'I see. And what was your intent concerning the other anchors?'

Hermione opened her mouth again when Harry squeezed her knee.

-'Obviously it's going to take some time to find out where he hid them.' Harry was glad that Tonks had caught on and was schooling her features. 'In the meantime I think we're going to leave you be Headmaster.'

Snape stepped lightly away from the group as Harry started casting a spell.

Harry turned to the headmaster as Hermione touched the glowing portal.

-'How were things at Gringotts by the way headmaster?' He smiled at the shocked expression on the older man's face. He nodded at Snape before disappearing through the portal.

-'Why did you lie to him Harry?' Remus was waiting for him to the right of the glowing portal.

-'I don't think he's completely committed to beating Voldemort.' Harry said calmly as he conjured his normal clothing.

-'What do you mean Harry?' Tonks gasped.

-'I'm not sure myself to tell you the truth but I get this gut feeling that although he doesn't condone what Tom is doing his agenda doesn't call for him dying quite now.' He sat down on of the couches.

-'That's impossible Harry.' Hermione protested. 'He wants to stop him and his death eaters as much as anyone.'

-'And yet …' He trailed off.

-'So what were you trying to do by hinting that there were other of the things still existing?' Remus asked from his usual seat.

-'He's going to check on the ones he knows about.' Harry focused on him. 'Then when he finds out that those are gone I'm hoping he's going to double his efforts to find the others and tip Voldemort that he's not immortal anymore.'

-'And then?' Ron was sitting on the armrest as he followed the back and forth.

-'Then he launches an all out attack to get rid of me in the place he thinks I'll be.' Harry gestured to the 4 walls.

-'You think you can beat him then?' Tonks sat on Remus' armrest with a shocked expression.

Harry and Ron nodded in unison.

-'When do you expect this?' Hermione took a seat on the other side of the couch.

-'It's 6 right now so if it doesn't happen in the next two hours I expect it before noon tomorrow.' His calm tone belied the shock faces all around him.

-'In the next two hours?' Remus gaped.

-'But he can't attack you here, it's under a fidelius!' Hermione contradicted.

-'You think he's going to attack Hogwarts?' Tonks asked softly.

-'Yes, I think he's going to go for an all out attack there as soon as he hears I'm there. The death of Nagini will just be icing on the cake.'

-'How will you know...?' Hermione started asking.

-'... That he's attacking? I'm sure that even if Dumbledore tries to hide it from me Snape will let us know.' Harry grinned.

They were all trying to think of something to say when the fireplace erupted.

The green flames resolved around the bald head of Shacklebolt.

-'Tonks you there?' His tone was urgent.

-'I'm right here shack.' She waved at him.

-'Get back here and grab your gear, You-Know-Who just started an all out attack on Hogsmeade!'

Tonks stared at Harry in shock.

-'Go get ready Tonks. We'll meet you there.' Harry waved her to the fireplace.

When she had disappeared he stood up.

-'I'm not even going to waste my breath asking you to stay here.' He laughed as Ron's mutinous face turned into a grin. 'But I want you all to make it out alive so no stupid heroics, ok?'

All three of them nodded.

-'Then get ready, We'll floo to the three broomsticks as soon as possible and start kicking butt.'

Remus came back a few minutes later in what looked like a thick leather trench-coat.

His boots made heavy metallic clinks as he stood in front of the fireplace.

Ron and Hermione came in wearing almost exactly what they had worn through the day.

Both of them had tied their hair back and were wearing tight sweaters.

The holsters n their tights were obviously make shift but they would have to do.

-'Ok, give me a minute to buff and I'll get a buffet table when we get there.'

-'You think we'll need a snack? Hermione sounded surprised.

-'No, this is magic food, it'll heal you over time.' He let his full armor appear. 'You just have to not be interrupted while you're eating.'

Ron nodded.

-'Let's get to it then.'

Harry nodded and started casting.

The spells were bright in the dusk light but he could see them taking effect.

Of course he could only really use Dampen magic and Arcane intelligence but they were so powerful that they would make the difference in any even fight.

Remus grabbed the floo powder from the mantle and threw it in.

Going first Harry shouted their destination and let himself spin.

The journey ended as it always had, Harry sprawled on the floor and knocked into the legs of a table.

This proved to be a good thing as two stunning spells splashed on the hearth at chest height.

Harry rolled back towards the door as the wands aimed down to him.

-'Stop!' It was Shacklebolt. 'That's an ally.' He grabbed one of the arms pointed at him and pushed it up.

He was turning to Harry when the hearth flashed green again.

The wands belonging to the two aurors pointed at it again but this time they stopped short of casting.

Remus stepped gently out and walked to Harry.

-'Is everyone else coming too?' Shacklebolt asked.

-'Yes, Ron and Hermione are right behind me.' The werewolf nodded at him.

On cue Hermione stepped out of the fireplace.

When she saw the pointed wands she raised her hands gently.

-'It's ok Hermione, they're just worried because of the attack.' Harry said. He stood up and stared at Shacklebolt. 'I'll conjure a buffet table, it's going to have food and water for you to use. Drink when you're tired and eat when you're injured. Where's Tonks?'

-'She should be here any seconds.' The auror answered.

The floating table appeared just to the right of the fireplace and Remus and Ron immediately stepped forward.

There was too much food to hold comfortably but both en stuffed their pockets as was possible and let the rest vanish.

Hermione made her way forward as the fire turned green once again.

Tonks landed with the same grace as Harry.

She obviously had been prepared for the reception as she continued rolling and giving her name in a clear voice.

-'Hey Tonks, glad you could make it.' Harry gave her a hand to help her stand up. 'Food's over there, when you're ready we go.'

Tonks was wearing what looked like a riding suit. All of it was a dark green leather with bulges in the impact areas.

She was also wearing a tiny backpack clipped directly to the shoulders of her outfit.

Nodding she stepped to the floating table and her arms full she started filling her backpack.

As she finished closing the backpack Harry cast the buffs on her.

-'Let's go.' He stepped out the door without giving time to anyone to protest

The five of them spread out a little as they got into the street.

All except Harry turned to the spell fire and screaming coming from the direction of the station.

-'OK, here's how it's going to go.' He waited until they all looked at him. 'Remus, you're the most heavily armored, I need you to draw their attention and most of their spells, the spell I've cast on you will stop the brunt of their power and between the coat and your werewolf nature you shouldn't feel them for a while.' He turned to Ron and Hermione. 'I need the both of you to cast as fast as you can, anything you can think of that's going to stop them from casting back at me.'

-'Are you in danger from them?' Ron interrupted.

-'No not really but my spells require a few seconds to cast for the really powerful ones and if I get hit it slows my casting down.'

-'What do I do?' Tonks asked.

-'You're our next heaviest hitter, you stay behind me and you hit them with bludgeoning spells as fast as you can cast them.' he nodded towards the station. 'I'll target from right to left and you go from left to right.' He made a gesture to indicate what he meant.

When they all nodded at him he set off.

He let Remus take point and the others spread out to form a lozenge behind the werewolf.

They turned the corner into mayhem.

A group of maybe 6 death eaters was shooting spells at the doors and windows of the house on the other side of the street.

They were taking some form of cover behind the wall to a garden and laughing as one spell hit.

-'You're up Remus.' Harry whispered.

With a howl Remus ran to other side of the street and started running along the house next to the death eaters.

Harry realized this was a good idea as the DE's couldn't see him without coming out of cover.

The first man tried to jump from behind the wall into the street.

He had not expected the blast Harry sent his way.

With an explosion of flames the man's robes caught fire.

The body stopped twitching when two red bolts, a stupefy and a reducto cast by Ron and Hermione hit him.

Remus reached the low wall and with a shout grabbed another death eater and hauled him over the wall.

With a shove he threw him towards Harry.

The black haired man tried to get a spell off when the first missiles hit him.

He was trying to roll out of the way of the blue curse sent by Ron when he realized that the next 4 missiles simply swerved to follow his movements.

The impact seemed to take its toll as the man dropped to one knee.

He was still trying to raise his wand when the next set hit him and he keeled forward.

This turned out to be fortunate for him as Tonks finished incanting.

The left side of the wall glowed bright red then yellow and finally in a shower of white it exploded.

The screams of pain came from the far side of the wall.

When there vision cleared they could see that two black robes were slowly leaking red. One of them was the source of the screams.

Remus took advantage of the distraction to punch one the two surviving DE's so hard that he flew back.

The werewolf was turning to the last attacker when a spell caught him full in the chest.

The everbero was designed to shatter bones and drive the splinters deep into the surrounding flesh.

It was therefor a shock to the remaining black robed man that Remus didn't even register that he had been hit.

He was about to cast another spell at the snarling man in front of him when three rays hit him almost simultaneously.

The stunner from Ron would have been enough as it hit the man in the head.

However the vomiting hex that Hermione sent doubled him over as all expression left his face.

The banisher picked him up like a piece of straw and threw him at the wall of the house on the other side of the garden. Tonks looked on grimly when the cracks echoed as the body hit the ground.

-'Remus are you ok?' Hermione ran to her old professor.

-'I'm perfectly fine.' Remus sounded shocked as he examined his chest.

-'Then let's continue.' Harry nodded to the station at the end of the street.

The tiny train station was a battlefield.

The aurors had obviously been prepared for something as they had the end of the tracks where the engine was resting barricaded.

However their preparations had not been enough to stop the twenty or so death eaters that had taken the train and were shouting spells from the inside of the train.

The five of them stepped towards the aurors carefully.

Tonks stepped forward to reassure the dozen or so aurors that were crouching behind the heavy metal barrier they had constructed on the platform.

The rest of them crouched quietly as their friends tried to get an assessment of the situation.

When she had finished she turned to them and explained.

-'It looks like this was the main attack, the guys we caught on the street were probably just a scout party to get behind those guys.' She pointed at her colleagues. 'We have maybe twenty people on the train spread out among the first three or four cars.'

Harry nodded.

-'We need to get into the train.' He gestured to the engine next to them. 'Remus and I will get the door to the first car and you guys follow behind ok?'

As they all nodded Remus and Harry stepped forward.

The aurors gave them strange looks as they circled the barrier and started walking with their backs right along side the train.

When they reached the first car door Harry put his hand on the handle and with a swift gesture opened the door and jumped inside.

Remus jumped right behind him and closed the door behind him.

Harry was in his casting stance when his friend noticed the two black robed figures.

The death eaters had obviously been trying to flank the aurors when Harry burst in.

One of them got a spell off before Harry could finish his arcane blast.

Remus was surprised to see the young man stagger back.

With a grunt Harry released the power and looked on in satisfaction as the first of their opponent toppled forward.

With a gesture he sent an explosion at the second attacker and watched him fall forward, his robes smoldering on his prone form.

Remus nodded at him and started slinking forward.

When he had finished checking the compartments he nodded at Harry.

Harry stepped back to the door and gestured for the rest of his group to come.

When the five of them were standing in the corridor they took up their formation again and started towards the back of the train.

The pattern was repeated in the next car as they found a half dozen of the death eaters casting curses out of the windows.

The corridor was narrow enough that Remus merely had to stand there to absorb most of the spell fire.

Between Harry and Tonks the attackers fell down one by one.

Once the third car was cleared Harry used his evocation and gestured for Remus to get the door.

They were stepping back onto the platform after they had finished the last remaining attackers when Hermione spoke up.

-'This was way too easy.'

-'Yes it was.' Remus nodded.

They turned toward the barrier where the aurors were to see one of them run towards them.

Tonks stepped forward and nodded.

-'What is it?'

-'You know who is at the gates of Hogwarts!' He shouted as soon as he was within ear shot.

-'It was a diversion.' Tonks exclaimed.

-'Explains why it was so easy.' Harry acknowledged. 'I'll gate us there.'

Without another word he started casting the spell that would bring them to the entrance hall.

Remus was staring intently as the bubble opened in front of them.

He couldn't help the grin as he saw the auror step back in shock.

Harry immediately stepped through the space and vanished.

The scene that greeted him was almost funny.

Most of the teachers were in the entrance hall.

They had obviously been told only a few minutes ago that their greatest enemy was making a bid for victory. Some of them were already in robes and slippers.

Only Flitwick seemed to have prepared for a fight and was wearing what looked like a suit of leather armor.

When he had appeared McGonnagal and the diminutive professor had immediately trained their wands on him.

Harry almost laughed when Snape pushed their arms down.

-'Good evening Mr Potter, I take it you've been told.'

-'Yes professor, we just finished mopping up in Hogsmeade.'

Snape's eyes widened just a fraction.

-'How many?'

-'We got maybe two dozen of them altogether.'

-'That would explain it,' He stared at the closed doors. 'Between your work this morning and this you've depleted his forces.'

Harry looked at him curiously.

-'There have never been more then twenty or thirty death eaters Mr Potter, the wizarding world simply does not have the population to have the kind of armies you see in the Muggle world.'

The boy who lived nodded.

-'He's out there with 6 followers.'

-'The Lestranges?'

-'And Mrs Crabbe and Goyle if I'm any judge.' Flitwick piped in.

Harry nodded at the diminutive professor.

-'This ends tonight professor.' Harry looked at the door grimly.

-'So I had surmised Mr Potter.' Flitwick piped in.

Turning to the charms professor he smiled.

-'I'll take my group and we'll charge them,' He opened his spellbook. 'I'll use one of my dragons to make sure I have his full attention.'

-'Can we mount with you?' Ron asked seriously.

-'I don't think so, it's a one person mount. I'll charge forward and you guys come up behind me. My spells will all be for Tom so it's imperative that you get the others ok?'

-'What about killing curses Harry?' Tonks was checking her equipment as she spoke.

-'Remus might have a chance but I wouldn't try it even with him so dodge those please.' Harry smiled ruefully.

Hermione patted him on the arm.

-'Let's go then.'

McGonagall half voiced a protest at this when she heard the groan of the hinges behind her.

Snape had unlocked the doors and was cracking them open just enough to let Harry and his group through.

-'Good luck Mr Potter.'

-'Thank you.'

Harry stepped down to the grass before he summoned his dragon.

He had chosen the albinos dragon.

It would make a better target in the dusk and with a little luck they would focus on him and ignore his companions.

The gasps behind him told him he had made the right choice.

With a light gesture he urged the beast a few feet off the ground and then went straight for the group that was attacking the gate.

He smiled as the muffled swear from Tonks caught his ears.

With a swoop he passed 10 feet above the gate and started climbing.

He was almost 50 feet up when he reversed direction and let his dragon disappear.

The air held him for a second before the forest started whistling past him.

As the ground approached he cast the slow fall spell and gently touched down.

He realized his plan had worked when the first curse splashed on his dampening buff.

-'Good evening Tom.' He grinned at the tall men in his black robe.

He waved in the mans direction and let a fire blast explode.

Obviously they had come prepared as the flames almost instantly extinguished.

However the murderous snarl that exploded from the snake man's face told him that the little damage he had done was not expected.

Three voices started incanting.

-'_Avada Kedavra_!'

He blinked forward.

The three streaks of green light exploded out of the wands to either side of him.

As they sped towards his former position he pulled out his wand.

The form in front of him was probably Goyle judging from sheer size.

He had barely started turning around when Harry planted the wand through his jugular and let the explosion of ice freeze the hulking figures head right off.

The wands around him were twisting when he let a frost nova explode outwards.

Turning to his left he blinked once again out of the melee.

He quickly spun and examined the chaos.

His 5 remaining opponents were frozen in place.

One of the smaller men had weathered what looked like a painful blasting curse to the stomach.

His frozen feet meant he couldn't double over and he was leaning painfully forward as he vomited what looked like black sludge in the twilight.

A feminine shriek indicated that Bellatrix had spotted him.

The muffled thump to her left caught her attention.

The arcane blast had bypassed whatever shields Voldemort had cast and the pain obviously stopped whatever incantation he had been performing.

Harry gambled on their distraction and sent a second blast into the faltering dark lord.

He had not been expecting the increase in power of each subsequent spell as it drove him back.

The ice around his cursed follower melted and the small man toppled forward.

Rather then risk return fire Harry blinked once again to his starting position.

Another arcane blast pushed the dork lord into Bellatrix.

This time the pain seemed to have been enough to make him falter.

The snake faced man snapped around and hissed in anger at him.

They both glared and as Harry started launching a barrage of arcane missiles Tom pointed his wand and started incanting.

Voldemort stumbled when the woman that was supporting him partially exploded.

Bellatrix's leg parted company as a Reducto from the other side of the gate his her mid-thigh.

Combined with the first set of missiles impacting on his torso Tom Riddle was driven to his knee.

Another reducto and a stupefy passed through the bars of the gate and hit the tallest figures on either side of the dark lord.

The next set of missiles flew toward the prone form.

Voldemort had been prepared for this and he swatted his wand in the air as if he was batting the magic out of the sky.

His face registered surprise as the missiles kept true and once again struck him in the chest.

Harry blinked forward as the last standing death eater incanted the killing curse.

As the green light left the wand towards his former position he let an arcane explosion loose.

It refocused the dork lord's attention on him.

The bone white wand immediately pointed at him and let loose a bright yellow curse.

At such point blank range Harry had no time to dodge.

The curse picked him up and slammed his body into the gate behind him.

Landing on his feet the boy who lived immediately pulled out his own wand and slashed it at the prone man.

The bolt of ice passed through the blue curse coming towards him.

The curse lost its color as it passed the dampening buff.

It seemed to splash harmlessly on his magical armor.

The same could not be said of the ball of near absolute zero that impacted Tom.

It seemed to encase his wand arm in ice and continue a few inches passed his shoulder.

Another Reducto passed between the bars to Harry's right and hit the last standing death eater in the head.

The spray of gore was contained within the hood but when the figure finally slumped forward the hood caved in on the odd shape.

With the extra time afforded by the ice Harry started casting an arcane blast.

When it exploded on the prone man it seemed to sap him.

The second blast took so much out of Tom that he let himself fall on both knees in front of his nemesis.

The next blast appeared to cave in the mans chest.

Voldemort glared hatefully as Harry prepared the next blast.

When it impacted it seemed to provoke a muffled explosion inside the robes.

With a broken back appearance the figure slumped back.

Voldemort's eyes were still open in death but he now glared at the heavens unseeing.

A coughing sound to his right caught his attention.

Wormtail had taken off his mask and was trying to wipe the blood off his mouth.

He seemed to glare at Bellatrix as she moaned towards her lord.

Obviously she had been the one who had cursed him in the melee.

Averting his gaze Harry looked back at the gate.

Hermione was standing a few feet from the bars in shock.

Ron had his wand pointed at the prone figures and a determined look on his face.

Tonks looked professional as she kept scanning all the dark robes for any sign of life.

Remus was the surprising one. He had come the closest to the closed gate and was looking at his former friend with pity.

With a thought Harry blinked to the other side of the gate and turned around.

Opening his spellbook he pulled one of the least used spells there.

Focusing on the area where the bodies were he let loose.

With a roar a pillar of lava and flames exploded.

I started by burning the robes the bodies were encased in.

The whimpers of pain from Bellatrix and Wormtail were barely audible over the thrumming of lava and flames that engulfed their mangled bodies.

Harry kept his eyes on what was left of Tom.

At first the robes he wore seemed to protect him from the heat but as more and more Lava accumulated over him they burst into flames.

The spell ended before the mangled corpse could be fully consumed and without a second thought Harry cast the spell once again.

And again.

He only stopped when all that was left on the other side of the metal gate was a pool of molten glass and ashes.

Turning to his friend he smiled a small smile.

Tonks was holding on to Remus as she stared at the carnage that had been done.

Ron had put a hand on Hermione shoulder for comfort.

It was Remus that spoke up first.

-'So that's it?'

Harry nodded as he grinned wider.

-'That's it.'


End file.
